Happy New Year from EcoMotion!
Dear EcoMotion family of friends and colleagues and acquaintances. Allow me to thank you all – our invaluable constellation — for another great year. EcoMotion is a nimble and lucky company… lucky to have crossed paths with so many passionate people, their institutions, and communities. Together we are getting green projects done!
Big-Time Campus Solar
The job is complete and 100% operational with major solar ports on 49 campuses at the Chula Vista Elementary School District, near the border with Mexico. EcoMotion served as the owner’s rep through procurement and installation. We are now measuring the systems performance. The solar systems there are designed to offset 90% of power use. The project was supported by a bond measure. EcoMotion projects that it will result in over $100 million in savings over 25 years… while cutting carbon and providing shade.
The CVESD solar systems are supported by a robust operations and maintenance contract that includes a performance guarantee. The project was expertly built and managed in tranches of schools by Engie. It also features a microgrid at the District Office where communications and the IT center will benefit. EcoMotion is proud of the District officials that made it happen on time and on schedule, led by Oscar Esquivel.
Climate Action Planning
EcoMotion completed San Diego Community College District’s first Greenhouse Gas Inventory in 2022, and then followed this with the 2023 Climate Action Plan. The planning process covers each of the three major campuses – City College, Mesa College, Miramar College – as well as SDCCD’s College of Continuing Education and its satellite locations, and the District Facilities.… all serving the District’s 100,000 students each year. The very nature of the commuter college was prominent both in the inventory and in the climate action planning. Fully 73% of the District’s carbon footprint of 62,325 metric tonnes, was related to student, faculty, and staff commuting.
Every inventory is unique and requires data from multiple sources. SDCCD buys power from four sources – San Diego Community Power, San Diego Gas and Electric, solar through two power purchase agreements, and fuel cells operated by Bloom Energy. The inventory presents a detailed breakdown of the District’s carbon footprint… setting the stage for climate action planning. A key variable is student commuting, with post-pandemic telecommuting finding a new balancing point with on-campus learning. Another CAP finding is that fuel cells, while highly beneficial in some utility service territories, are net negative in San Diego where the District is served by San Diego Community Power and its 50% green power base offering.
39 Years of EcoNet News
Yes indeed, 2023 was another busy year of bringing good news to thousands of you. EcoNet News has been published since 1984, 39 years and counting. The twelve issues of Volume 25 of EcoNet News brought you the latest in the clean energy revolution, green mobility, a focus on sustainable communities and lifestyles. Our Op-Ed, The Net Positive, delved into a variety of perspectives including the EV revolution, celebrating Rocky Mountain Institute’s impact, crafting intentional community, being the father of the bride, and the highs and lows of climate change.
150 Podcasts and Counting
What an anniversary: At the end of 2023 we top 150 episodes of Flanigan’s Eco-Logic Podcast. It’s a team effort… thanks to Sierra, Skye, Alizeh, and Rhys, our erstwhile coach based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The podcast can be found on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. In 2023 we hosted fantastic guests ranging from an oyster farmer, a sustainable jeans maker, to White House climate advisor Gina McCarthy.
Crash Courses are a special feature of the podcast. Father/daughter duo – Ted and Sierra Flanigan – recorded four crash courses in 2023 featuring the Emissions Time Bomb, Solarizing Millbrook School, the Chula Vista Solar Story, and Climate Action 101.
Municipal Facility Microgrids
Clean Power Alliance and Ava Community Energy (formerly East Bay Community Energy) are at the cutting edge of energy resiliency. With our help, these two CCAs are demonstrating how to “harden” buildings, to make them energy resilient… and to do so without fossil fuels. Over the past two years, EcoMotion in collaboration with Point Energy Innovations and Avila Partners, has done extensive analysis of buildings in dozens of southern and northern California cities. For CPA, EcoMotion’s technical team evaluated over 120 facilities for the solar/storage microgrid model. Currently, 11 facilities are in the first portfolio of projects being contracted. In Northern California and for AVA, EcoMotion is currently managing an inventory of 108 municipal facilities involved across eight cities. It’s been exciting model building with CPA and AVA on these initiatives. Thanks to our partners KPFF structural engineering, Blues Roofing, and Shell Roofing.
Indiana Solar
In November, EcoMotion was brought back on board to support a major solar project at Capital Group Companies. This time at the CGC facilities in Carmel, Indiana. Again, Capital Group is demonstrating leadership with solar, cutting costs and carbon, and supporting its associates’ commitments to sustainability. It’s a pleasure to work with the company’s highly proficient Global Facilities group.
At Carmel, three solar systems nestled into the parking lot, ~2.5 MW in aggregate, are planned to offset power in the company’s three office buildings. Aesthetics and safety are project priorities. The solar ports will feature a chevron design to retain snow loads and avoid avalanching of snow and ice. They will also feature a visually appealing, under-decking to rain-proof and drip-proof canopies.
Board Facilitation
Late in the year, Ted Flanigan had the privilege to work for the non-profit Plug-In America (PIA), the national trade association of EV drivers. His job was to facilitate PIA’s board meeting, its strategic directions sessions in particular. PIA, is a dozen years old, and has unquestionably been effective in its mission of “accelerating the adoption of EVs.” Can it do more? Its staff and board are working on determining new priorities and directions. How can PIA help make EVs accessible for all? How can the benefits of EVs spread widely and evenly across our society? The sessions were productive and enlightened by some Tai Chi icebreaking!
EV Charging
The rise of electric vehicles is profound. So is the need for infrastructure in California cities to make sure that charging is ubiquitous. Chino seeks to bring widespread and affordable charging to its residents, businesses, and visitors… using a public/private partnership model. EcoMotion is the City’s consultant, managing the solicitation process that begins with chargers at up to 40 city sites. As with solar power purchase agreements, there is a revenue sharing opportunity for Chino and other cities. Concurrently, EcoMotion is supporting the City with a 500 kW photovoltaic installation at the City of Chino Police Department.
Rural Electrification
In April of 2023, the Chief Executive Officer of Pacific Clean Energy Partners, Rob Pratt, appointed Ted Flanigan as the Director of Rural Electrification for PCEP’s project in the Solomon Islands. The project there is led by one of the masters of global energy management! After becoming the largest independent power producer in Costa Rica years ago, mostly with high-head hydro, Rob Pratt formed the International Institute for Energy Conservation. Now he’s focused on Pacific Island nations and the enormous potential to replace limited diesel with unlimited solar..
The Solomon Islands is a country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It has a population of 794,700 spread out over several large volcanic islands to the southeast of Papua New Guinea, as well as outlying islands and atolls. The terrain is mountainous and heavily forested. Once a British protectorate, Solomon Islands achieved independence as a republic in 1978.
More than 60 languages and dialects are spoken. English is the official language, but Pijin, an English-based Melanesian pidgin, is the language that is most widely used.
The proposed rural electrification pilot will focus on Isabel Province with a population of ~35,000. The pilot program will include a pay as you go basic solar model, as well as an initiative to develop demonstration community-based microgrids. Rural electrification there will involve solar, storage, and potentially wind installation to power its telecommunications and internet services.
Solar System Mediation
It ain’t over, but it is a time of thanks, and EcoMotion is thankful for each party in a complex solar dispute in Banning, California. EcoMotion was hired to resolve a dispute between a local school district and its municipal utility. We thank each party in Banning for giving the process the time of day, for stepping up and being adults, and for working to find solutions and to end years of strife and finger-pointing… and wasted solar savings.
As with most tough issues, the causes are multiple and intertwined… in this case involving communications breakdowns, aging onsite equipment, severe power factors, egos and withheld remedies, and more. EcoMotion thanks our professional colleagues at Banning Unified School District, Banning Electric Utility, and Engie for the collaborations and significant steps forward in 2023. Thanks also to Blanchard Associates for repairing a kVAR generator at one site, and to West Coast Electric (also from Banning) for its work in defining capacitors required to adhere to Banning Electric interconnection standards.
Long-Term Relationships
EcoMotion relishes in the long-term professional relationships that we have. We are proud to have worked for LA Metro since 2013… fully ten years supporting TRC Engineering in its omnibus energy management contract for Metro. We’ve been solar consultants there, trainers, we inspect, monitor, and report on Metro’s large solar systems, working to resolve solar system upkeep and repair issues. After a brief hiatus, we are back in Santa Monica, having worked for the City since 2007… engaged for 14 of the last 17 years. We were only disengaged when our star employee went to work for the City!
We’re also back at Capital Group Companies, this time in Indiana. We’re proud of our 13+ year professional relationship with Capital Group, a firm that demands excellence. In 2010, EcoMotion guided CGC in developing solar in Irvine, California, at the time the largest corporate solar system in Orange County. EcoMotion then facilitated that system’s dramatic expansion years later. We then supported solar at CGC’s facilities in San Antonio, Texas, including an unusual duty: Our team camped out overnight in a parking lot waiting in line to secure a Central Public Service company reservation for a feed-in tariff!
We give thanks for allowing us to find that deep sense of fulfillment, collaborating and making a difference. I give special thanks to Michael Ware, Alizeh Siddiqui, Benjamin Gold, and Terry Chan, and a big shout out to Linda Kraemer, Yadira Cerrato, and Jibade Sandiford. They were at the core of our success this year!