Sustainable Development Focus
Facility Executive - Feb 23 The NFL scored a zero-waste legacy project at Super Bowl LII, with 91 percent of all trash generated on gameday from 67,612 fans responsibly recovered through composting, recycling, and reuse. The landmark project marks the highest diversion rate achieved at U.S. Bank Stadium and at any previous Super Bowl, and aims to serve as the benchmark for future large-scale events. Nearly 63 tons of the 69 tons of gameday waste were recovered through recycling or donation for reuse (62 percent) and composting (29 percent).
Solar Industry Magazine - Feb 26 SunPower Corp. has completed a 10-megawatt solar PV and 1-megawatt energy storage system at the U.S. Army’s Redstone Arsenal in Alabama. The solar-plus-storage project was designed and built by SunPower, which will also operate and maintain the facility. SunPower has deployed solar at military facilities nationwide, including more than 28 megawatts at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, 13.78 megawatts at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake and 28 megawatts at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, and 5.6 megawatts at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.
Inside Climate News - Feb 12 During one bitter cold winter in upstate New York, Matt VanDerlofske spent $4,000 on fuel oil to heat his drafty, two-story home for the season. His solution was an unusual choice for a homeowner in the U.S., but one that's gaining interest: He had a hole drilled hundreds of feet into his backyard and a geothermal heat pump installed by Dandelion, a startup energy company conceived at X, Google's innovation lab that's now part of its parent company, Alphabet. Right now, a tiny percentage of U.S. homes use geothermal heat pumps, according to Xiaobing Liu, a geothermal researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory; about 500,000 buildings in the commercial sector use the technology. Dandelion is trying to expand that market for geothermal heating by lowering the price, and it just got a big boost from the federal government. On Friday, Congress voted to extend a 30 percent federal tax credit for geothermal heat pump installations. With state incentives included—a $26,000 system in New York would qualify for a $6,000 state rebate—the federal tax credit would drop the cost enough to make it more competitive with traditional heating and cooling.
Commercial Property Executive - Feb 20 Soon after San Diego’s Petco Park was upgraded with a Sullivan Solar Power system, Hanford Mall in Hanford, followed suit. Renewable energy developer Blue Sky Utility and photovoltaic company Sunpreme Inc. joined forces and installed a 1.6-megawatt bifacial commercial rooftop solar system on the retail center. The collaboration marks the largest solar photovoltaic rooftop installation in Hanford and the largest solar system to be installed, to date, on a shopping mall in the state. The system is estimated to generate almost 3 million kilowatts of clean electricity per year, sufficient to power more than 450 homes.
Environmental Leader - Feb 26 Stone Edge Farm is a 16-acre estate owned by Mac and Leslie McQuown in Sonoma, California, that includes a winery known for producing cabernet sauvignon from organically-grown grapes. In 2013, Mac and electrical engineering contractor Craig Wooster embarked on an open-source microgrid project to lower the farm’s carbon footprint. Since then, the Stone Edge Farm Microgrid has reached a 785-kW capacity that includes solar PV, a microturbine, and a hydrogen fuel cell hive. The system supplies 100 percent of the farm’s internal load and produces fuel for three hydrogen-powered cars.
