Solar Energy Week Draws Record Numbers

Close to 3,000 people participated in San Diego's first Solar Energy Week held from Sept. 25 to Oct. 1. A variety of packed events brought businesses, residents and policy makers together for a week of learning about solar technologies, regulations, trends and obstacles. Even kids and their parents learned about the power of the sun during Family Solar Energy Day at the R.H. Fleet Science Center.

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CPUC Approves Utilities' Energy Efficiency Plans

On Sept. 22, the California Public Utilities Commission ( CPUC) unanimously approved the 2006-2008 energy efficiency program plans submitted by California's investor-owned utilities ( IOU). This launches the most aggressive program in the history of the utility industry to help customers save energy, lower their bills, and reduce pollution emissions.

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Lemon Grove District Uses Sun Power

A curiosity to students, teachers and neighbors, a total of 1,912 glass-covered solar panels were installed at three Lemon Grove schools over the summer. And if all goes as planned, students will soon be following a lesson plan about the systems.

Installed at Palm Middle School, Mount Vernon and San Miguel elementary schools, these solar energy systems can produce up to 530 kilowatts combined, enough to provide up to 95 percent of each school's electrical needs or power more than 100 homes. Extra or unused power, most likely on weekends and school breaks, goes to the SDG&E grid and the schools receive energy credits.

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Solar Energy Week (cont.)

Created to increase solar energy awareness and to educate the public on its benefits and applications, the week kicked off with a formal dedication of QUALCOMM's new 100 kW photovoltaic system. Present at the event were PUC Commissioner Geoffrey Brown, San Diego County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Pam Slater-Price, Kyocera International President Rodney Lanthorne, SDG&E Senior Vice President of Regulatory & Strategic Planning William Reed, San Diego Councilmember Brian Maienschein, and Assemblymember Lori Saldana.

Wednesday's Commercial Solar Tour led over 60 participants to four San Diego businesses with various solar applications, while Thursday's Solar Energy Conference at QUALCOMM fueled debates over energy.

Conference Keynote speaker, Dr. Tom Starrs, COO of the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, took a global view by comparing United States energy consumption and supplies – especially fossil fuels – to the rest of the world. He noted that the vast majority of the world's fossil fuel supplies were located in politically unstable regions and warned the audience that they should "Be worried. Be very, very worried."

The week culminated with the sixth annual Solar Homes Tour, when over 1,600 Diego area residents got to look at how other San Diegans are coping with fuel and energy price increases by installing and using various solar technologies.

Solar Energy Week was also covered extensively by the local media including a major feature article in the Union-Tribune and broadcast segments from CBS News 8, ABC News 10, Fox 6 News, NBC 7/39 News, KUSI 9 and several radio stations. Combined with an extensive brochure campaign, over 500,000 San Diegans were exposed to SDREO's solar message.

SDREO would like to thank primary Solar Energy Week sponsors, SDG&E and Kyocera Solar, Inc., along with event sponsors BP Solar, Independent Energy Solutions, Pardee Homes, Powerlight, QUALCOMM Incorporated, Renewable Technologies, Inc., and San Diego Electrical Training Trust

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2006-2008 Energy Efficiency Programs (cont.)

The 2006-2008 energy efficiency plans are expected to provide greater energy efficiency savings than California has ever achieved before, surpassing 2,000 gigawatt-hours in annual savings and more than doubling the savings achieved through the “public goods charge” funded programs.

According to PUC President Michael R. Peevey: "These programs will cut energy costs for homes and businesses by more than $5 billion, eliminate the need to build three large power plants over the next three years, and reduce global warming pollution by an estimated 3.4 million tons of carbon dioxide by 2008, which is equivalent to taking about 650,000 cars off the road."

The utilities are investing $2 billion in energy efficiency over the next three years to help consumers save energy. Approximately $300 million will be invested in natural gas efficiency programs (equivalent to approximately 1% of natural gas utility revenues), and $1.7 billion will be invested in electric efficiency programs (equivalent to approximately 3% of electric utility revenues), putting California near but not quite at the top of the nation in terms of relative energy efficiency investments.

The utilities’ plans have innovative new programs, including incentives for construction of green buildings, efficiency improvements that save both energy and water, on-bill financing, and programs that let customers take advantage of rebates right at the cash register. In addition, the utilities are allocating more than 20 percent of the program funds to solicit innovative programs and proposals from non-utility implementers, such as SDREO, for improved portfolio performance.

To ensure that energy savings are real, verified, and reliable, the CPUC is drafting rigorous ex-post evaluation, measurement and verification (EM&V) protocols. Program evaluations will be conducted by independent evaluation experts under contract with the Commission.

View the CPUC press release for more information.

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Schools Use Sun Power (cont.)

The district began exploring solar energy shortly after the energy crisis in 2001 that caused the wholesale price of electricity in California to skyrocket. The solar project came to fruition with the help of Burlingame-based 3rd Rock Systems & Technologies, a developer of renewable energy projects, and SDREO's Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP), which provided a rebate that is expected to cover half the cost. The largest SGIP solar rebate to date in the SDG&E territory is $3.5 million, which covers about 46 percent of system costs.

SGIP provides financial incentives for the installation of clean, on-site, distributed generation equipment, namely: wind turbines; fuel cells; combined heat and power (CHP) systems; microturbines and gas turbines; IC engines; and solar or photovoltaics.

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