Yosemite installs largest national park solar array
August 13, 2011 by John McRae · Leave a Comment
(Photo: Fenners / Wikimedia Commons)
Yosemite National Park is known for El Capitan and the breathtaking views captured by Ansel Adams, but visitors may soon remember another sight from their trip. Yosemite has installed the largest solar power array of all the national parks with a 672 kW system that will provide 12 percent of the park’s power needs.
Installed by Suntrek, the system consists of a 500 kW solar canopy over a parking lot, a 100 kW rooftop array on a warehouse and a 72 kW wall mounted array, all located within the park’s maintenance and administrative complex. The whole system is made up of 2,800 solar PV panels.
The $4.5 million installation will save the park $50,000 a year on energy costs and the park also expects to receive $700,000 in energy rebates from PG&E over the next five years.
This is something I’d love to see more of. While no one wants to see our national parks overrun with solar arrays, it is very fitting to install them at administrative or visitor centers where electricity is used. National parks exist to conserve and protect the most amazing parts of our land, so renewable energy seems to be ideal for providing their electricity.
Head over to SolarWorld’s website, the maker of the panels, to see some cool photos of the project.
via Treehugger
Hawaii upgrading system to sell power to grid
August 13, 2011 by John McRae · Leave a Comment
AP – After a slow start to a program allowing people to sell renewable energy to Hawaii’s power grid, it’s being revamped to attract more interest and reduce the state’s dependence on imported oil.
Teen dies after fall on Yosemite hiking trail
August 13, 2011 by John McRae · Leave a Comment
Reuters – A teenager has died at a hospital four days after suffering head injuries in a fall at Yosemite National Park, in a deadly year for visitors to the California nature reserve, authorities said on Thursday.
EPA orders DuPont to halt Imprelis sales
August 13, 2011 by John McRae · Leave a Comment
AP – Environmental regulators have ordered the DuPont Co. to halt sales of a new herbicide blamed in several lawsuits for damaging trees in many parts of the country.
Panel seeks more disclosure on natural gas drilling
August 13, 2011 by John McRae · Leave a Comment
Reuters – A federal panel sketched out its first vision of a regulatory roadmap for the booming shale natural gas industry on Thursday, urging more transparency on the use of chemicals and more careful treatment of waste water.
AP IMPACT: Cutbacks force retreat in war on meth
August 13, 2011 by John McRae · Leave a Comment
AP – Police and sheriff’s departments in states that produce much of the nation’s methamphetamine have made a sudden retreat in the war on meth, at times virtually abandoning pursuit of the drug because they can no longer afford to clean up the toxic waste generated by labs.
EPA orders PRico business to cut lead pollution
August 13, 2011 by John McRae · Leave a Comment
AP – Federal regulators on Wednesday ordered a battery recycling business in Puerto Rico to cut lead pollution at its plant on the U.S. island’s northwestern coast.
New Zealand names mountain after Everest conqueror Hillary
August 13, 2011 by John McRae · Leave a Comment
Reuters – New Zealand will name a part of its highest mountain after one of its most famous citizens, Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to scale Mount Everest, the government said Wednesday.
NRC staff: New Westinghouse reactor design is safe
August 13, 2011 by John McRae · Leave a Comment
AP – An attempt to build the first brand-new nuclear power plant in a generation has taken a step forward now that staff at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission says plans to build new reactors in Georgia meet safety requirements.
Groups ask U.S. court to restore wolf protections
August 13, 2011 by John McRae · Leave a Comment
Reuters – Conservation groups have asked a U.S. appeals court to strike down a move by Congress to strip more than 1,500 wolves in Idaho and Montana of federal endangered species protections.
