 Letter From the Executive Director
Two interesting things happened last week. As California's power reserves fell below 7% on Tuesday (May 28), the ISO called a statewide Stage 1 alert and requested that consumers conserve electricity. Then on Saturday, we held our 4th Annual Solar Homes Tour to a record turnout. Did the specter of blackouts suddenly raise interest in solar?
read more >>
Program Spotlight
Cool Communities Shade Tree Program  FREE TREES! The California Center for Sustainable Energy, Cool Communities Shade Tree Program, in cooperation with People for Trees, is now giving away over 8,000 trees throughout San Diego County.
learn more >> Success Stories
Kyocera Wireless Participates in the San Diego Demand Response Program With the help of the California Center for Sustainable Energy, Siemens, and Ken Dryden, the Facilities Engineer at Kyocera, the facility was able to automatically reduce load by nearly 500 kW.
learn more >> | Inside the San Diego Energy Resource Center | |
Display of the Month
Name: Exit Sign Display
Description: Contains incandescent, compact fluorescent, light-emitting diode and electroluminescent illumination sources
Systems Addressed: Lighting, Egress
Illustrates: Energy and maintenance savings of newer exit sign technology, with a variance of 40 watts and 750-hour life for incandescent bulbs to 0.35 watts and 263,000-hour life for electroluminescent phosphers.
Instrument of the Month
 Name: Alnor Electronic Balometer
Description: Measures velocity, temperature and humidity from supply and exhaust HVAC diffusers and grills.
Benefits: Meter is lightweight, so one person can hold the hood up to the grille or register. The meter detaches from the base and can be used with optional thermo-anemometer probes to measure velocity, temperature or humidity.
Examples of use: Measure air volume to verify or balance airflows in a HVAC system and pinpoint airflow deficiencies. Book of the Month
Applied Illumination Engineering, written by Jack L. Lindsay and published in 1997 by The Fairmont Press, Inc. is a comprehensive 516-page reference providing a practical, fully illustrated guide to the design, specification and application of state-of-the-art lighting, from the fundamentals of illumination to hands-on applications. The full scope of light sources are examined, and basic design methods for both indoor and outdoor lighting are presented, along with optimum application strategies for merchandise, offices, industrial settings, floodlighting, parking lots and street lighting.
Periodical of the Month
Buildings, is published monthly by Stamats Buildings Media Inc. and is a well-known resource for modern facilities decision-makers. Buildings, covers developments and trends in design, operations and management of nonresidential buildings for maximum efficiency, life-cycle sustainability and comfort. Every issue addresses industry developments, smarter buildings, tools of the trade, a product buyers guide, and feature articles with valuable case studies. Video of the Month
Name: This Renewable House – The Definitive Guide to Renewable Energy
Length: 50 minutes
Date: 2002 - TOP -
| Letter From the Executive Director
Two interesting things happened last week. As California's power reserves fell below 7% on Tuesday (May 28), the ISO called a statewide Stage 1 alert and requested that consumers conserve electricity. Then on Saturday, we held our 4th Annual Solar Homes Tour to a record turnout. Did the specter of blackouts suddenly raise interest in solar?
Perhaps. Whatever the reason, over 700 people showed up at 23 homes around San Diego County to see how some PV panels or a solar water or pool heater could reduce their energy bills, add value to their homes and help insure against future alerts.
When you add the recent completion of the one megawatt PV system at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, the future of distributed generation is here today. In fact, we now have about 5 megawatts of solar energy installed in San Diego County and our total renewables portfolio, which includes wind power, hydro, bio-gas and solar, is over 29 MW of electricity.
But, our long term goal is to have 40% of our peak summer demand for electricity met with renewable energy by 2030, 50% of that by facilities in county. That means that we have to achieve a market penetration of nearly 900 MW of in County renewables by 2030 - over 30 times today's 29 MW. But we can do it.
We can build the infrastructure. We can lobby our politicians for public and private grants and rebates to lower the initial cost of PV installation. We can educate developers about the placement of homes to catch maximum sun. We can work with architects to design solar efficient homes. We can convince mortgage lenders to provide special energy efficient and solar mortgages. We can educate the public to demand that PV be built into new homes and retrofitted into existing homes. We as a community can do these things.
The full utilization of one of the most abundant resources in San Diego County - the sun - will significantly reduce fossil fuel emissions from base load power plants and thus significantly improve the quality of our environment today and in the future.
So join our promotion of solar power by encouraging your communities to install PV on their buildings, by asking your home builders to add PV during construction and by learning all you can about how you can play a part in this effort. You can find more information about solar energy on our website at http://www.energycenter.org/pvweb/index.htm.
Irene M. Stillings
Executive Director - TOP - Program Spotlight
Cool Communities Shade Tree Program 
FREE TREES! The California Center for Sustainable Energy, Cool Communities Shade Tree Program, in cooperation with People for Trees, is now giving away over 8,000 trees throughout San Diego County to residents, K-12 schools and small businesses. These trees are not little ones either, they are full-sized, 10 to-15 gallon nursery quality specimens in your choice of over 20 varieties.
Here’s why:
· Energy and money savings. Trees create shade, which reduces the need for air-conditioning. They also reduce the “urban heat island” effect by lowering outside air temperature. For more on the urban heat island effect and other research, visit http://www.energycenter.org/trees/research.html.
· Improved air quality. Trees act as a carbon “sponge” by removing the carbon from carbon dioxide (a green house gas that contributes to global warming) and storing it in their trunks, while releasing the oxygen back into the air. Trees, also settle out, trap and absorb numerous pollutants (such as dust, ash, pollen and smoke) from the air.
· Increased property values. Trees increase property values (by 5 to 20 percent compared to non-landscaped homes, according to the International Society of Arboriculture), and add natural character to our communities and create more livable neighborhoods. They provide us with color, flower and fruit.
· Reduced storm water run-off.Trees trap and hold water from storms, which lessens the amount of pollution that enters streams and oceans and they also increase the amount of water filtered back into the ground, counteracting the effects of large areas of pavement.
To participate in the program, just call (619) 222-TREE and ask about the Cool Communities Shade Tree program or visit http://www.energycenter.org/trees/index.html. We’ll get some basic information from you and, if your property qualifies, send you a program guide and tree booklet, plus a program application form. The program extends only through the end of 2003 so don’t wait!
This program is funded by California ratepayers under the auspices of the California Public Utilities Commission.
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Success Stories
Kyocera Wireless Participates in the San Diego Demand Response Program  Kyocera Wireless, a 424,000 sq. ft manufacturing/testing/office facility in San Diego, participated in the 2002 Energy Management Program, a California Energy Commission sponsored program that offered design, installation and testing of an automated demand responsiveness systems in participating facilities with a minimum power demand of 100kW. With the help of the California Center for Sustainable Energy, Siemens, and Ken Dryden (Facilities Engineer), at Kyocera, the facility was able to automatically reduce load by nearly 500 kW. Various measures were programmed into the energy management control system to achieve this demand reduction.
After the system test, Mr. Dryden soon realized that load shedding did not disrupt occupancy comfort. Instead of load shedding only during potential Stage 2 and 3 emergency alerts, Mr. Dryden has decided to perform this action on a daily basis. The target goal is always to reduce 200 kW year-round. Based on an analysis of the actual results in April 2003, Kyocera Wireless was able to reduce energy consumption by 3,346 kWh/day. This is equivalent to 869,960 kWh of annual savings worth $95,700. The energy and peak demand savings are estimated to save the facility more than $105,000 per year. |
