Cities, Corporations Chart Own Climate Action Plans
Despite fluctuating White House-led policies toward tackling climate change, there has been a sustained push toward climate action below the federal level that has kept forward momentum in the United States.
Despite fluctuating White House-led policies toward tackling climate change, there has been a sustained push toward climate action below the federal level that has kept forward momentum in the United States.
The accelerating trend has been “masked by the fact that there has been absolute, like, opposition from the federal government under Trump and that was harmful,” says Nathan Hultman, the Director of the University of Maryland’s Center for Global Sustainability. But Hultman says non-federal actors, like states, counties and companies, “have actually stepped up and really expanded how much they’ve been doing. “
Nestled in Sonoma County wine country, the city of Healdsburg was confronted by the twin problems of a growing demand for renewable energy and combating algae buildup in vital water reclamation ponds.
The answer, is found in what city managers say is the United State’s largest floating solar farm. A five-million gallon wastewater pond has been fitted with 11,600 panel solar panels. By reducing sunlight in the ponds, the solar panels prevent algae growth at the same time as producing nearly five megawatts of clean power for the city.
“Our community is very climate oriented,” says Healdsburg utilities director Terry Crowley. “They like to see more renewable energy, so this was a good project in that it helped to increase the quality of recycled water for irrigation usage, but also helped to provide renewable energy for our community.”
Healdsburg gives the treated water away to vineyards — that’s the only permitted reuse for now, Crowley says.
Constructed in four months, the solar farm came on-line in January 2021 and Crowley hopes it makes Healdsburg’s municipal power utility a model for other cities. It will provide enough power for just over a thousand households. The city has signed a 25-year contract with White Pine Renewables, the company that owns and operates the project.
Floating solar farms are quickly gaining popularity in the U.S., developers say, particularly in places like Sonoma County where the price of land is dear.
Crowley doesn’t expect to hold the title of the country’s largest floating solar farm for long.
Solar panels stretch for over five square miles (13 square kilometers) in the U.S.’s largest photovoltaic farm, Solar Star, which is owned by Berkshire Hathaway Energy Renewables.
Alicia Knapp, BHE Renewables President and CEO, says the company was formed in 2012 in response to a growing demand for clean energy.
After nearly one decade in business, BHE Renewables has weathered changeable federal climate polices. Knapp says the company focuses on clients’ demands for “reliable, sustainable, low-cost energy,” and that helps the company “not be distracted or have knee-jerk reactions,” following changable federal environmental policies.
Knapp welcomes the President Joe Biden’s invitation to 40 world leaders to discuss climate change and putting the United States back at the table and is looking for increased cooperation around the globe.
Knapp also supports Biden’s proposed $2.3 trillion infrastructure bill, which she says will help address looming transmission and new technology issues for the burgeoning renewables sector.
Source: AP
