Matt Beardsley

Stanford scientists Mike Toney and Johanna Nelson inspect a transmission X-ray microscope, a powerful device that takes nano-scale images of chemical reactions in batteries while they are running.

Imagine if Tesla, Nissan and GM could cut the price of their electric cars by 25%. That electric dream may be a wee bit closer than you think, thanks to researchers at Stanford University.

Recently a team from Stanford’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory announced a new method to analyze and potentially improve rechargeable battery technology in a radical way. A cheap, reliable rechargeable battery is the holy grail for electric carmakers that rely on costly lithium ion batteries for power. Instead of the usual pairing of a lithium compound with graphite, the study examined lithium-sulfur batteries, which in theory can store five times more energy at a significantly lower cost.

“Sulfur is an earth-abundant element and offers the greatest potential to reduce cost,” said research co-author Michael Toney, head of the Materials Sciences Division at SLAC’s Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource.

The affordability factor has long been a challenge for climate-conscious carmakers who want to fuel their vehicles with oil-free energy. Batteries can cost as much as half of the electric vehicles they power, so significant cost reductions in battery production could potentially make electric cars cheap enough to gain mass market appeal.

The study used high-power X-ray imaging to analyze what happens inside a lithium-sulfur battery when the battery is running. To date, such batteries have had short life spans, failing after only a few dozen charges and discharges. This made them unsuitable for powering electric cars, which require thousands of cycles over their lifetime.

In previous experiments, this short lifespan was attributed to the chemical reactions that were thought to deplete a key part of the battery known as the sulfur cathode. But the new analysis by the study’s co-author, Johanna Nelson found “only negligible changes in the size of (sulfur) particles.”

These detailed images help researchers understand exactly what happens when the battery material swells and cracks, ultimately leading to failure. Solutions such as “encapsulating” the sulfur in a carbon shell can then be explored. In the future, Michael Toney anticipates that three-dimensional images, X-ray diffraction and X-ray spectroscopies will offer even greater insights and other ways to improve the performance of lithium-sulfur batteries.

Sion Power, the Arizona based company, is already working on a lithium-sulfur battery in collaboration with the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and received funding from the Advanced Research Project Agency – Energy (ARPA-E). Earlier this year, BASF, the German chemical company invested $50 Million in the company.

But it’s still a long road from the lab to cheap batteries and affordable electric cars. To put this in context, Silicon Valley’s Envia Systems got worldwide kudos for its recent breakthrough in energy density testing for an advanced lithium-ion battery, but safety and lengthy life cycle testing is still ongoing.

The race for the holy grail of cheap reliable battery technology is heating up. Researchers from the University of Southern California just published results of significant efficiency gains for iron-air batteries, ideally suited for solar power storage.

Earlier this month, two advanced battery companies, Palo Alto Research Center and Robert Bosch LLC, received a total of $7 Million in funding from ARPA-E to improve performance and reliability.

Researchers at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland are researching the rather incredible  lithium air battery, using gold electrodes. Other multinationals like IBM, Panasonic, LG Chem are also working on new battery technology, but that game-changing breakthrough has proved elusive so far.

Meanwhile, every electric car maker will be paying close attention and willing the researchers to put their pedals to the “right” metal and make a commercially viable and cheap battery sometime soon. Like tomorrow…

Craig Miller

Watering fields in the Sacramento Valley: traditional irrigation methods have required a lot of guess-work.

By Vinnee Tong

Near the Central Valley town of Los Banos, Anthony Pereira opens a tap to send water into the fields at his family’s farm. Pereira grows cotton, alfalfa and tomatoes. And he is constantly deciding how much water is the right amount to use.

“Water savings is always an issue,” he says. “That’s why we’re going drip here on this ranch. We gotta try to save what we can now for the years to come.”

Thanks to some new technology, that might get a little easier. To help farmers like Pereira, engineers at NASA and CSU Monterey Bay are developing an online tool that can estimate how much water a field might need. Here’s how it works: satellites orbiting the earth take high-resolution pictures — so detailed that you can zoom in to a quarter of an acre.

“The satellite data is allowing us to get a measurement of how the crop is developing,” says CSUMB scientist Forrest Melton, the lead researcher on the project. “We’re actually measuring the fraction of the field that’s covered by green, growing vegetation.”

Those images are combined with data they’re collecting right now at a dozen California farms from Redding to Bakersfield and from Salinas to Visalia.

In Pereira’s fields a tractor carrying tomato seedlings leads the way as farm workers nestle the plants into the dirt. Alongside them the researchers drill holes in the ground to put sensors underneath and around the crops. The sensors measure wind temperature, radiant energy from the sun and how thirsty the soil may be on a given day.

Walking through the field, researcher Chris Lund is carrying equipment that will collect all that data.

“Once a minute it’ll take a measurement of all the sensors that are attached to this,” he explains, “the soil moisture sensors, the soil water potential sensors, and in this case the capillary lysimeter, which measures how much water is going out the bottom of the system.”

Using this information with the satellite images that are updated about once a week, the researchers have come up with a formula that can estimate how much water a field might need. Farmers will soon be able to access estimates for their fields online and eventually they’ll be able to use their cell phones.

That means Pereira will no longer have to rely on the old-school way of deciding how much water to use.

“Before, everything was furrow-irrigated or flood-irrigated, and we’d just schedule depending on what the weather is,” he told me. “If it’s warm, we say, ‘OK we’re going to try to irrigate every two weeks.’ If it’s cooler, then let’s try to stretch it out another week, 10 days or so to make the water stretch out more.”

The California Department of Water Resources estimates water savings could amount to hundreds of dollars per acre, and the crop yield could be better, too. The joint research team sees its water-saving tool as something that could be used by any farmer. At the Ames Research Center in Mountain View, NASA’s Rama Nemani studies a map of the world mounted on a wall.

“If you look at the map like this, there are a lot of areas that are like California that are starved for water but need to still produce food,” he says. “So we have to figure out how to use whatever limited water each place has to the best possible extent.”

This online water saving tool could be available at no cost to farmers around the state as soon as next year, and eventually to farmers around the world.

Hear the radio version of this story from KQED’s The California Report.

Shell, US

Shell has partnered with MIT to explore carbon sequestration.

Royal Dutch Shell CEO, Peter Voser affirmed his company’s commitment to AB 32, California’s climate change legislation, and also explained why a carbon trading system is crucial to the development of alternative energy sources.

“We are clearly in favor of cap and trade systems,” he said to an audience of Silicon Valley business people and climate experts Wednesday in Burlingame. “We’d like to have it globally, to level the playing field.”

This statement from Shell, the global oil and gas company headquartered in the Netherlands and one of the world’s largest companies, is notable when you consider the strong opposition to AB 32 from the oil industry at large. In 2010, Proposition 23 attempted to derail the imposition of AB 32 provisions and was largely bankrolled by Tesoro and Valero, two Texas oil companies.

High producers of carbon dioxide, especially oil refineries, will be hard hit when AB 32 goes into force. So what’s the rationale of Shell’s apparent “green” attitude?

Voser explained that the company is not waiting for cap and trade to be commonplace. Several years ago, he said Shell started taking into account a charge for CO2 of $40 per ton to reflect the future price of CO2 in its internal accounting. What he didn’t say is that in Europe, where Shell is headquartered, an emissions trading scheme is already in existence and the implementation of AB 32 would arguably make Shell more globally competitive.

“We are emitting quite a bit of CO2,” Voser acknowledged in his clipped Swiss accent. And he highlighted the company’s investment in carbon sequestration projects, one of which begins construction in Canada shortly.

Shell, US

The Gulf of Mexico accounts for approximately 55% of Shell’s oil and gas production in the USA.

He also drew attention to the GameChanger program at Shell, which invites people to pitch innovative ideas for potential sponsorship from the company. But almost in the same breath, he accepted that the energy industry is resistant to change, citing the innovator’s dilemma.

According to Voser, global energy demand will double between now and 2050, half of which will come from growth in China.  So how can we grow without burning up the planet?

The Shell chief executive says alternative energy, energy efficiency and demand management are all parts of the solution, and he anticipates that Silicon Valley’s greatest contribution will be on the demand side.

He pointed out that shortening the delivery time for innovative technologies is key. Historically, it takes 15- 30 years for new energy technologies to be scaled and delivered. This needs to be cut in half, according to Voser, and he says he views energy policy as an important component to spur innovation and adoption.

“If we really want to have the right technologies developed, not having a CO2 price will mean there is uncertainty and therefore you will not get certain energy efficiency or innovation projects that you need implemented,” he added.

This green talk by Voser is all very well, but Shell’s environmental record, particularly in Africa, is hardly emerald green. One example that’s drawn recent criticism is the company’s legal action against environmental groups that are seeking to block drilling in the Arctic Ocean off Alaska’s North Slope.

Voser’s explanation of the legal action on Wednesday was not convincing. He described the company’s move as “a tactic to bring all parties to the table early,” and begin an open dialogue. The environmental groups argue that the drilling project will adversely affect native communities and that the company’s oil spill contingency plans are grossly inadequate. But Shell has spent over $4 billion on the project to date, and has vowed to spend even more, setting up a David and Goliath battle: deep-pocketed oil company versus feisty but meagerly funded nonprofits.

Note: Voser spoke at a Churchill Club event at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Burlingame on Wednesday March 21^st. The audience included a who’s who of the Bay Area’s climate and clean tech experts, including Facebook’s new green czar Bill Weihl; venture capitalist Ira Ehrenpreis and Dan Geiger of the US Green Building Council.

Chevrolet

The Volt now qualifies for California’s HOV lane status and a $1500 state rebate.

When General Motors CEO Dan Akerson was in San Francisco last week, I spoke to him about the five-week long suspension of the Chevy Volt production — and why he thinks the re-launch of the new-generation Volt could be a winner in California.

The Golden State accounts for one-in-four sales of the Volt, the plug-in hybrid made by General Motors. The car offers a potential solution to the “range anxiety” hurdle many would-be EV buyers face; but to gain traction against rivals like the Toyota Prius hybrid and the all-electric Nissan Leaf, it still has to surmount its red-hot price and fiery reputation.

Akerson says the new Volt qualifies for California’s HOV lane status and a $1,500 state rebate, thanks to changes in the combustion configuration of the engine. The new Volt will have an additional emissions system fan to reduce tailpipe emissions and Akerson anticipates that the average 36 minutes a day that commuters save by using the carpool lane will deliver an effective “California twist” to the vehicle’s marketability here.

California has a total of 1,400 miles of high-occupancy vehicle lanes for carpoolers and drivers of zero-emission cars like the Nissan Leaf, and advanced-battery cars like the new Volt. Akerson confirmed that GM’s flagship green car has already begun shipping here in limited quantities and will arrive in other states in the next 30-to-60 days.

To what does Akerson attribute the Volt’s relative popularity in California? The state’s superior EV infrastructure is an important factor. On a recent visit to Silicon Valley he was surprised to see so many charging stations in high-tech company parking lots. “You don’t see that in every city in America,” he said. “It’s forward-looking.”

Companies like Google, SAP, and Adobe already offer numerous charging stations for their employees, and retail outlets like East Palo Alto’s Ikea are jumping on the green bandwagon.

Akerson also burnished his own green credentials by confessing that yes, he does, “believe” in global warming, and that despite several GM colleagues advising him not to say that in public, he stands by his statement. But to underline his independence, he made a rather startling claim during an earlier Commonwealth Club interview.

“Well, this may surprise you,” he said. “But my underwear doesn’t have GM stamped on it…I am an individual and I do have my own convictions.”

Yes, his own convictions…and his own colorful turns of phrase that create unfortunate images, like this one. Nevertheless, the bold Akerson can be praised for speaking out on climate change, a subject many other CEOs won’t touch with a barge pole. He argues that it’s healthy to have different points of view and perspectives around the table at GM.

“Actions speak louder than words,” Akerson said, as he proceeded to trumpet his company’s green credentials: GM’s recent EPA recognition as a star energy provider; its 60% efficiency improvement in fuel use in the last five years, and the zero emissions of some GM plants powered by landfill methane. He also emphasized that GM was a willing participant in new CAFE (fuel efficiency) standards. “I have grandchildren,” he said. “We want to be part of the solution.”

Yet the Volt has plenty of detractors and was beaten out by the Ford Focus as the 2012 most EPA fuel-efficient car in the compact class. Critics of the $40,000 price tag say, “When you look at the finances, it doesn’t make any sense,” and tests by Consumer Reports found a paltry 26-mile battery range, 16 miles shorter than the initial range promoted by GM.

Chevrolet

The Volt is a hybrid: it runs on electricity alone for about 35 miles, then switches to a gas generator until it can be recharged.

As for GM’s response to AB 32, California’s Global Warming Solutions legislation that will put a price on carbon? Akerson underlined that, unlike the oil industry which is fighting the law’s implementation, “This is the new GM…rather than sit in a corner and be obstreperous…we are pushing everything on clean energy, energy efficiency.”

Finally, Akerson responded to a question regarding the GM Foundation’s financial support of the Heartland Institute, an Midwestern think tank often charged with spreading misinformation and undermining scientifically proven facts about climate change. Akerson confirmed that as CEO he can’t sit on the (GM) foundation’s board but promised to take another look at it when he’s back in Detroit.

Before Akerson left town with his entourage, I had one last question for the former private equity manager. He is known for calling the rival Toyota Prius a “GeekMobile,” so I had to ask him, does he have a pet name for his own Chevy Volt?

“Yeah the Volt…the greatest car in America,” he demurred; perhaps deciding that one startling visual was enough for one evening in San Francisco.

Bloom Energy

Caltech needed more generation capacity to meet the demands of its energy-intensive research.

Sunnyvale-based Bloom Energy made a big splash in 2010 when it came out of stealth mode – on the CBS program 60 Minutes no less – and announced its high-efficiency fuel cell, spawned by a NASA project for Mars. It has earned an impressive roster of clients including Google, eBay and Walmart.

But beyond the inevitable skeptics, the really big catch? “Bloom Boxes,” as the fuel cells have been dubbed, have a price tag of around $700,000. Hardly affordable for all but the largest companies with plenty of cash.

Yet California Institute of Technology, the private research university generally known as Caltech, had twenty Bloom Boxes installed on its Pasadena campus in 2010. Each box now produces 100 kilowatts of electricity for a total of two megawatts capacity; or 17% of the university’s electricity demand.

Here’s where the affordability play comes in. Instead of buying the boxes outright and incurring a hefty up-front cost, Caltech signed up for the Bloom Electrons Service, a power purchase agreement to buy power at a predictable price for the term of the contract (usually ten years). John Onderdonk, Director of Sustainability Programs at Caltech wouldn’t divulge its pricing or term details but said, “It is more cost-effective than the power we would otherwise purchase from the grid.”

And cleaner, too. The fuel cells are fed with directed biogas – methane captured from landfills, a low-carbon renewable energy source and, as Onderdonk explains, this source is preferable to energy from the local utility which gets about 60% of its power from a coal power plant in Utah.

State and Federal incentives accruing to Bloom Energy smoothed the way for the agreement, and these incentives allowed Bloom to provide the university with a lower rate than its local utility charges, Onderdonk confirmed.

So, why did Caltech feel compelled to pursue a clean energy solution to its increasing energy needs? Part of the answer lies in California’s existing climate legislation. Onderdonk explained that Caltech is committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with AB 32, the landmark climate change legislation which puts in place a series of caps and market mechanisms to reduce total greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. But the impetus goes beyond the State of California.

“It is important for us that our administration and operation of campus reflect the world-class research into climate change and sustainable energy technology that is occurring on the academic side of the organization,” the Sustainability Director added.

Onderdonk also says the Bloom solution resonates with Caltech’s NASA connection.

“The fundamental technology in the Bloom fuel cells was originally conceived as part of NASA’s mission to Mars,” explains Onderdonk. “So we felt a connection to the technology given our involvement with operating the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA.”

In addition, like any climate-minded organization, Caltech is also pursuing the low-hanging fruit of the energy equation: energy conservation.  Beyond its Bloom Boxes and 1.3 megawatts of photovoltaic solar, the university pursues an aggressive program to implement energy conservation in its existing buildings and construct new buildings that maximize energy efficiency. “All energy conservation projects are funded through a revolving loan fund, whereby capital is borrowed from our ($1.77B) endowment and utility savings are reinvested back into the endowment,” Onderdonk explained. “This model is unique in the nation and we are currently getting about 30% [return] on those projects.”

A 30% return? That’s the kind of yield that would make any fund manager swoon, especially in this challenging economy.

As for Bloom Energy, it’s staying tight-lipped about its returns and still has some challenges to overcome before its Bloom Boxes start blossoming in the backyards of homes and commercial buildings all over the world – the bold vision of cofounder and CEO of Bloom Energy, KR Sridhar, the former NASA scientist.

The key to mass market adoption remains affordability. As Sridhar told me in a 2010 interview. “If it’s not affordable, it’ll be the niche market — it’ll be a Tesla.  We need it to be a Honda Civic.”

By Chris Bauer

A dreamer stares up into the sky, watches the clouds slowly pass by and ponders what could be. From da Vinci to Newton to the Wright brothers to the little kid down the street, sometimes there’s a fine line between the day-dreamer and the visionary. And now a group of innovative thinkers are looking at those same passing clouds in a whole new way.

Looking up at the jet stream, Ken Caldeira, a climate scientist from the Carnegie Institution of Global Ecology at Stanford University says, “We find that there’s more than 100 times the power necessary to power civilization in these high altitude winds.” 100 times the energy to power the world is going to get people’s attention.

The global need for clean energy is pushing scientists and engineers to search for new, untapped sources of energy. “To solve this problem we need a real revolution in our system of energy development,” continues Caldeira, “We need huge amounts of power, and the things that can provide huge amounts of power include fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas; nuclear power, solar power and wind.” The strongest and most consistent winds are found in the jet stream as high as 30,000 feet above the earth. But how do you harness the wind power from that high? Now the race is on to find the answer to that question.

It may seem pie-in-the-sky, but over 20 companies around the world are now working to develop technology to tap the strong and consistent power of high altitude wind. One company we profiled here on QUEST, Makani Power in Alameda, California, has received a $15 million grant from Google to build a wing concept that would autonomously fly in high circles, capturing energy with small turbines and sending the power down its tether. Other companies are exploring the use of kites, parachutes, balloons and other fanciful flying machines.

There is no shortage of skeptics and there are plenty of obstacles to hurdle before true high altitude wind energy can get off the ground. But still, it’s fun and interesting to stare up at the floating clouds and dare to dream.

Photovoltaic Panels at a PG&E's Dixon-Vacaville array. (Photo: Craig Miller)

Photovoltaic solar panels are becoming the new black for large-scale solar projects in California.

Developers of what’s billed as the world’s largest solar project, spanning 7,000 acres in Blythe, California, say the plant will get half of its 1,000 megawatts from photovoltaic panels. This recent announcement makes Solar Trust of America the fourth large-scale solar developer in California to switch from solar thermal to photovoltaic panels, which Solar Trust CEO Uwe Schmidt calls “the right technology at the right time.”

Brett Prior, Senior Analyst at Greentech Media, says that large-scale solar developers have preferred solar thermal but the plummeting cost of photovoltaic panels is changing that.

“Over the last couple of years PV [photovoltaic] panels have dropped significantly in price,” says Prior.

How’s 70% over the last two years for “significant?” Prior says that’s because China is emerging as a major player in panel manufacturing. “Just in the last five years, China has gone from sort of a minimal role to over 50% of all worldwide manufacturing of PV panels.” says Prior.

However, cost of technology isn’t the only factor affecting large-scale solar projects.

“One area where [solar thermal] players are making a lot of progress is incorporating thermal storage,” says Prior.

For some solar developers, thermal storage is a viable feature for solar thermal power and worth the extra cost. Since solar photovoltaic panels only work when the sun is shining, some solar-thermal plants incorporate a feature that uses molten salts, which can store heat throughout the day and be released to generate steam for turbines.

Prior says solar-thermal plants using storage features allow more flexibility to grid demand, which is consistent after the sun sets.

“They can store energy during the morning when it’s not really needed by the grid, deliver 100% output at one p.m. when it’s most needed, and continue to deliver 100% output at eight p.m. when electricity demand drops off,” says Prior.

Despite the emerging energy storage technology, three other large-scale solar plants (links to interactive map, below) have made the transition from solar thermal to solar photovoltaic panels for at least part of the project. Other developers like NextERA’s Beacon Solar, builder of a large project in Kern County, have suggested similar plans.

View Making the Swtich in a larger map

Redwoods: There's an app for that. (Photo: Michael Limm)

We’re not the only ones who think iNaturalist is pretty cool. Save the Redwoods does, too.

The San Francisco-based conservation organization has teamed up with the biodiversity-tracking social networking site to create an iPhone app exclusively for monitoring redwood and giant sequoia forests. It’s called Redwood Watch. It uses the same technology as the iNaturalist iPhone app, aggregating data on a special Redwoods page within iNaturalist.org.

“We hope that this will help us have a better idea of where redwoods are, and then we can use that data to understand what kinds of conditions they can tolerate,” said Emily Limm, director of science and planning for Save the Redwoods.

Like the iNaturalist iPhone app, Redwood Watch is a free download that allows users to take field observations and easily upload them to a central online database.  There’s an online tutorial explaining how it works.

Limm said the hope is that members of the public will download the app onto their iPhones, and use it when they’re out hiking and spot redwoods, sequoias, and a list of other forest organisms the organization is hoping to track. These field observations from “citizen scientists” will help researchers gain a clearer picture of where the trees actually are throughout California.

“It’s impossible for us to collect all this data ourselves,” said Limm. “If people are engaged, they can help us refine our understanding of where the trees are in their natural ranges and where those edges are.”

But the project isn’t limited to trees in their native California habitats. Limm says that data about redwoods from botanical gardens and forestry projects around the world is just as important because it can yield clues about the range of environments the trees can tolerate. That could help scientists understand how the species may be affected by climate change, which can help land managers and conservation organizations plan for the future.

There’s more about the project, and about California’s redwoods, from Paul Rogers at Mercury News. And see KQED’s QUEST for more about redwoods and climate change.

Scott Loarie demonstrates the iNaturalist iPhone app to docents at Jasper Ridge. (Photo: Richard Morgenstein)

The new iPhone app for the online community iNaturalist is officially out and available for free download from Apple’s App Store.  Its creator, Ken-ichi Ueda, hopes that the new app will make sharing and uploading field observations so easy, that more people will want to document what they find next time they’re out on a hike.

“My primary motivation is to get people outside, thinking about the plants and animals they are seeing and actually recording them,” he said.  “The act of recording really locks it in your mind.”

But as I explain today in my radio piece on The California Report, Ueda and his partner Scott Loarie, a post-doctoral fellow at the Carnegie Institution, want to do more than just get people out in nature.  They also are hoping that with the technology of iNaturalist, citizen scientists will collect and aggregate on-the-ground data that can be useful for scientists studying climate change.

“What we really want to do is to use a common social framework to connect local experts familiar with the biodiversity of a certain area to scientists who can make that data useful,” said Loarie.

For a quick how-to-lesson on using the app, check out this video:

While social networking and mobile technology may be fairly new, the basic idea of getting volunteers to help scientists document nature is not.   In 1997, I volunteered on several occasions for NOAA’s SEALS program.  We’d head out to Bolinas Lagoon in groups of three or four to stand by the side of Highway 1 for hours at a time counting seals.  (We didn’t have iPhones then; just pencils, paper, and clipboards.)   Then there’s the Audubon Society’s Christmas Day Bird Count, which just celebrated it’s 111th anniversary. More than  60,000 people across the county spend the holiday counting birds as part of that project.

There’s also the California Roadkill Observation System, a project of UC Davis that asks volunteers to report roadkill sitings. Organizers hope to use the data to identify and predict “roadkill hot-spots.”

There are actually dozens (at least) of ways to get involved with citizen science efforts around the state.  And if animals (and roadkill) aren’t your thing, there are efforts like Mushroom Observer. Project Budburst, and the Great Sunflower Project. Many more are listed on the Science for Citizens website, which lets you search projects by topic, location, and difficulty.

This week representatives from the federal Department of Energy and Bureau of Land Management wrap up their California barnstorming swing, to gauge public opinion on the topic of siting solar projects. Throughout this often contentious debate, many have claimed that a potentially huge piece of the power solution is being overlooked; rooftop solar.

Acres of flat-roofed commercial buildings in California's Inland Empire. (Photo: Craig Miller)

Fly into Ontario airport in Southern California’s Inland Empire — or just zoom in on Google Earth — and you’ll see hundreds of block-long warehouses. There are acres — probably square miles — of flat, gray roofs sizzling in the San Bernardino County sun.  Soon, though, instead of merely soaking up the rays, hundreds of industrial rooftops in Southland cities will harness them to feed the local electrical grid.

Solar panels ready for installation on Ontario warehouse. (Photo: Ilsa Setziol)

Southern California Edison and independent power producers holding contracts with the utility are building 500 MW of solar panels on warehouses and, to a lesser extent, on the ground at other Southern California locations.

Together these projects are expected to produce enough energy to rival a traditional power plant, enough to serve about 325,000 homes.

Last fall, as the project was being ramped up, Edison’s rooftop solar manager Rudy Perez guided me through waves of deep blue panels—11,000 in all — atop an Ontario warehouse.  “They’re the same standard type of panel you’d get on a residential photovoltaic system,” he said, adding that the company will also deploy more efficient SunPower brand panels.

I was intrigued by the project because, for years, environmentalists have advocated this kind of energy, called “distributed generation,” as an alternative to the environmental concerns that often attend other power sources, including out-of-town solar farms.   The typical response from utilities has been, It’s just too expensive.

Hoisting panels onto warehouse roof. (Photo: Ilsa Setziol)

But the cost of solar panels has come down, and the sheer size of Edison’s project has allowed it to secure deep discounts, both on equipment and the installation costs. Plus, as the state’s solar industry has matured, there are more contractors with the experience to take on this kind of project. Perez estimates the installed cost for its portion of the project will be $3.50 a watt (conventional photovoltaic installations were running around $7 a watt when the project was launched).

That’s still more expensive than other power sources, including a large solar farm (plus transmission lines) in the Mojave desert.

But distributed solar has other advantages.  It can feed directly into neighborhood electrical circuits, alleviating the need for new transmission lines. And, with virtually no public opposition, no requirement for environmental review (just local building permits), distributed solar is basically a sure bet and relatively speedy. Although the entire project will take five years to complete, a single site can be up and running in nine months.

The company’s VP of Renewable and Alternative power, Marc Ulrich says the project will help diversify Edison’s renewable power portfolio: “You need multiple sources to ensure you don’t put all your eggs in one basket.”

For a broken-egg example, Ulrich points to a contract the company signed with Oakland-based BrightSource Energy for a solar thermal plant in the Mojave Desert. The project crumbled when Senator Dianne Feinstein placed new environmental restrictions on the land.

Still, V. John White, Executive Director of the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies, doesn’t expect distributed solar to obviate large solar farms. “We have to recognize the scale of the energy we have to displace,” he says, “the [vast] amount of [renewable] energy we have to have to get off coal, and fuel electrical cars.”

The renewable piece of Edison’s power pie (close to last year’s state-mandated 20% milestone) is mostly made up of geothermal (more than half) and wind. Cooking up more solar makes a lot of sense because the panels produce the most power at essentially the same time — hot summer afternoons — that Californians demand it most.

Although the solar panels on the Ontario warehouse look and perform like those on my San Gabriel home, the distributed solar project is something of an experiment.  Pointing out a row of large inverter boxes, Rudy Perez says it’s still unclear how much photovoltaic can be loaded into a typical neighborhood electrical circuit without causing power fluctuations.  “As clouds roll over you get into issues with intermittency that mean our output is going to be rising and falling fairly quickly.” The utility will study the issue in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.  Edison’s preliminary testing suggests the problem may not be as significant as some fear, in part because of the size of the project. Perez explains,  “The nice thing about having so many buildings throughout an area is that as a cloud rolls over one building, it may be coming off another building, and the overall effect tends to balance itself out.”

New smart meters the company is installing on customers homes could also help respond to shifts in power production. The devices have met with with less resistance in Southern California than to the north, in regions largely served by Pacific Gas & Electric.