California’s 33% RPS: Lighting the Way to Jobs and a Clean Energy Future

by Howard Wenger, August 30, 2011 | Email this

Appropriately nicknamed the Golden State, California is a global leader in solar power. Is the state’s famously sunny climate the reason Californians have so vigorously embraced solar? No, not really. Germany boasts more installed solar than California, and it is almost as far north as Alaska. Rather, the thing that California and Germany have in common is public policy that has consistently supported solar industry investment and long term growth. Thanks to the California Solar Initiative (CSI), for example, more than 1 gigawatt of solar has been installed statewide on California homes, schools and businesses. As a result of this support from the state’s policy makers, SunPower and solar companies large and small have responded with increased investment in California, including the creation of manufacturing and construction jobs, which ultimately benefit local communities and drive down the costs of clean, renewable solar for everyone.

In the most recent example of a long-term solar vision, California expanded its renewable portfolio standard (RPS) to increase the amount of production from renewable energy sources from the state's investor-owned utilities, electric service providers and community choice aggregators. In a ceremony that SunPower was very pleased to host at our new manufacturing facility in Silicon Valley, Governor Brown signed into law California's new RPS target of 33% by 2020, up from the previous goal of 20% by 2010. U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu joined the event to announce federal energy policy support of the state’s leadership in solar power.

By requiring utilities to get one-third of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2020, California has unleashed a new wave of clean energy innovation and investment. This law is helping to create new jobs, improve air quality, promote energy independence and public health, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and radically reduce the cost of clean energy power. In a recent video interview, SunPower’s President Emeritus Dr. Swanson discussed California’s new RPS law. Check it out here:

How are electrical suppliers doing so far at achieving the RPS goals? According to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), California’s three investor-owned utilities -- Southern California Edison (SCE), Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) -- obtained an average of about 18% of their power from renewable sources (excluding hydropower) in 2010, up from 15% in 2009. They are on track to achieve 20% by the end of this year.

SunPower is helping meet the California RPS:

SunPower has contracted with PG&E to build the 250-megawatt California Valley Solar Ranch in San Luis Obispo County. The signing of this milestone contract three years ago signified the opening of the first market for central station solar power plants in the world. In addition to building a plant that will generate enough power for about 100,000 homes, SunPower will be creating up to 350 construction jobs and placing about 70% of the 4,700-acre project area under permanent protection to meet conservation objectives for a range of species.
For SCE, SunPower will build solar power plants totaling 711 megawatts in California’s Central Valley, providing the equivalent power required for more than 460,000 homes. These plants are notable for the fact that they are cost competitive with a new natural gas power plant – a key milestone.
Also for SCE, SunPower has an agreement to supply 200 megawatts of solar technology for SCE to build and own as a distributed power plant on large warehouse rooftops.
Modesto Irrigation District is a publicly-owned utility for which SunPower is developing a 25-megawatt power plant. Solar PV can be sited anywhere and is modular, providing substantial flexibility to utility customers to meet the growing RPS requirements over time within their transmission constraints, cost-effectively.

While California has the most aggressive RPS in the nation, other states are also supporting solar development with their own renewable portfolio standards. With the broadest US footprint in utility projects, SunPower is proud to provide services and technology to electricity providers from Delaware to Hawaii, including these projects:

25-megawatt DeSoto Solar Energy Center, Florida (Florida Power & Light)
20-megawatt Copper Crossing, Arizona (Iberdrola Renewables / Salt River Project)
10-megawatt Dover SUN Park, Delaware (LS Power / City of Dover Municipal Utility)
11-megawatt supply agreement with Tucson Electric Power, Arizona
10-megawatt Space Coast Next Generation Solar Energy Center, Florida (Florida Power & Light)
8-megawatt Exelon City Solar, Illinois (Exelon)
5-megawatt Murfreesboro Solar Project, North Carolina (Duke Energy Services / GreenCo Solutions and North Carolina Electric Membership Corporation)
5-megawatt Air Force Academy system, Colorado (Colorado Springs Utility)
5-megawatt Johnson Matthey system, New Jersey (Constellation Energy)
5-megawatt Kalaeola system, Hawaii (HECO)
1-megawatt Shelby Solar Project, North Carolina (Duke Energy)

SunPower is creating thousands of jobs and over $1 billion in positive economic impact in California through our residential, commercial, public agency and power plant businesses. Here is a map Here is a map indicating the locations of our large solar installations and SunPower dealers, as well as some details on SunPower’s impact to date.

If you are interested in taking an active role and becoming a solar advocate in your area, we recommend you join Vote Solar, a not-for-profit that is fantastic at identifying opportunities for direct political engagement to support solar.

Howard Wenger
President, Regions
San Jose, CA, United States

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It's Official! Solar Panels Meet Electric Vehicles

August 24, 2011 | Email this

We have been overwhelmed by the level of excitement around SunPower’s partnership with Ford to provide a special solar system package which will offset the electricity used to charge Ford Focus Electric vehicles. The program is called "Drive Green for Life" and is an auto industry first. When you buy a Ford Focus Electric vehicle, at the same time, you can also buy a high efficiency SunPower rooftop solar panel system designed to provide Ford Focus Electric vehicle customers the ability to generate enough renewable energy to offset the electricity they would use to charge their vehicles. Drive Green for Life offers you a 2.5 kW SunPower solar system for a discounted price of $10,000, not including other rebates and incentives. This partnership provides a greener and cleaner way to generate electricity. Now, you can drive a car powered by the sun. You truly can drive green for life.

We are very excited by this opportunity to take solar mainstream and provide consumers a chance to learn more about solar while they are shopping for an electric vehicle at their local Ford dealerships.

For those of you who couldn’t join us in person, we wanted to share video highlights from the Drive Green for Life program kickoff event at the Ford Point Craneway Pavillion in Richmond, California. The event location is particularly meaningful because this was originally a facility that built Ford cars. At the time when it was built, it was the biggest auto manufacturing facility on the West Coast. Now, one of SunPower’s offices is housed in the same building, and it was a great backdrop for the Drive Green for Life launch event!

Enjoy the video below and let us know if you plan to take advantage of this new partnership. We’d love to hear your thoughts on our Facebook wall!

Also, you can sign up to be the first to know how to solar power your Ford Focus electric vehicle. Once the Drive Green for Life program is available in your area, we'd send you an e-mail notification.

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Dartmouth's Big Green Bus to Stop at SunPower's San Jose Offices

August 11, 2011 | Email this

UPDATE: The Big Green Bus will be stopping in front of the SunPower San Jose offices on Thursday August 18, 2011, from 11:00am to 2:00pm.

SunPower, through our Foundation, product donations and volunteerism , gets to work with a number of great nonprofit partners in California, around the USA and world. Our goal is to Make an Impact together with these partners and empower, inspire and motivate a new generation of solar energy leaders in communities around the world. The Dartmouth College's Big Green Bus is a prime example of such a project. The bus has been on tour since June, and is visiting us next week! Help us welcome the Big Green Bus in San Jose!

This project consists of an eco-friendly bus run by thirteen Dartmouth students who strive to educate others on sustainable innovation. The bus is powered by four SunPower solar panels, which provide energy to all the electric appliances, computers, air conditioning and veggie pumps. The bus runs on waste vegetable oil that they get from restaurants from areas that they pass through. The solar panels power the veggie pumps that purify the used vegetable oil in order to turn it into usable fuel for the bus – it’s a very clever way of using renewable energy to generate sustainable fuel, no?

The project has been running since 2005 and this year it is led by 13 students from different majors and years who hail from Hawaii to Maine and who have an interest in sustainability. The bus is a classroom on wheels, enabling students to promote a broad range of sustainability topics from clean energy, transportation, and food to building materials. The Big Green Bus has been successful program educating people from all walks of life in sustainability. They call the bus a vehicle for change.

This year the bus has planned stops in 24 different states, and has already been to 19 states. Although they are two and a half months into their trip, they have many more stops and eight more states to go. See if they are stopping by a city near you.

On Monday August 15, 2011, from 12:30 to 2:30pm, the Big Green Bus will stop by in front of the SunPower Corporate Headquarters in San Jose, CA. If you are in the area we encourage you to stop by. The bus has a little something for everyone from kids to adults. This is the perfect opportunity for you to make the most out of your child’s last days of summer.

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SunPower and Ford Partner To Offset Energy Used by Electric Vehicles

August 10, 2011 | Email this

What do Ford Motor Company and SunPower have in common? We’re teaming up with Ford to offer Focus Electric and C-MAX Energi plug-in hybrid owners a solar panel system that will provide electric vehicle owners with enough renewable energy production to offset the energy used for driving. This is the first partnership of its kind that allows Ford vehicle owners to charge their Ford Focus Electric and future Ford electric vehicles using clean solar energy.

With this partnership, Ford Focus Electric owners can purchase a SunPower solar energy system for less than $10,000. Local and state incentives may be available to make this even more affordable. SunPower solar systems deliver guaranteed performance with our industry leading, 25-year performance warranty.

The SunPower solar power systems available in this offer will produce an average of 3,000 kWh of electricity per year. The system was sized to accommodate an electric vehicle owner who drives about 1,000 miles per month. Our high efficiency panels generate more power per square foot than any other solar panel – allowing homeowners greater flexibility to maximize available roof space and increase the size of their system to achieve even greater savings on their electricity bill.

The SunPower-Ford partnership was launched today, August 10, 2011 at SunPower’s Richmond, Calif. facility, which was a former Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant for Model A cars in the 1930’s.

Do you have questions about using solar technology to charge your electric vehicle? At 5:00 p.m. EST/2:00 p.m. PST. today, Ford Associate Director of Global Electrification Infrastructure Mike Tinskey and SunPower’s Ken Fong, general manager of the company’s North American residential and light commercial business unit, will answer your questions on a live chat at: http://www.thefordstory.com/our-articles/cars/focussedan/join-the-live-chat-about-ford-and-solar-energy-leader-sunpower/

To celebrate our partnership, we are giving away three “Join The Solar Revolution” t-shirts. Share this blog post on Facebook and Twitter with a link back to this post to enter. We’ll choose our winners on August 19th.

For additional information on Solar and Electric Vehicles, join the conversation on SunPower’s Facebook page.

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PlanetSolar Update: A Special, First Stopover in Asia

August 04, 2011 | Email this

In September 2010, the world’s largest solar-powered boat, the MS Tûranor PlanetSolar, set sail from Monaco with the goal to travel around the world using only solar energy. Most recently, the catamaran visited Manila, Philippines; the first stopover in Asia and the fifth continent visited on the world tour to date.

After a non-stop journey from Australia to the Philippines, PlanetSolar arrived in Manila at 10 am on July 21st in the Philippines Navy headquarters. Powered by 38,000 SunPower high-efficiency Maxeon solar cells, the boat generated more than enough energy to put the PlanetSolar one week ahead of its schedule. A pleasant surprise for those in Manila!

The PlanetSolar’s stopover in Manila was indeed a meaningful one. Local SunPower employees arranged for a full day of activities for the PlanetSolar crew – including a tour of our fabrication facilities where the solar cells were made for the PlanetSolar boat. In addition, we were honored to have the Vice President of the Philippines, Jejomar Binay and the Director General if the Philippines Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), Lilia de Lima join our team to attend the event that commemorated the boat’s arrival in Manila. Finally, our employees had the opportunity to take a tour of the boat and see their work in action. This was definitely a moment in which our employees took pride in our work at SunPower.

The PlanetSolar boat departed from Manila on August 2nd, and is headed to its next destination, Hong Kong. Following Hong Kong, the boat will stop in Singapore, the Maldives, Mumbai and Abu Dhabi before returning to Monaco. It is scheduled to complete the expedition by late April or early May 2012. You can visit PlanetSolar to learn more about the project.

We have compiled our favorite photos from the PlanetSolar’s visit in Manila. Enjoy the photos and let us know what you think about PlanetSolar’s journey below!