California’s Central Valley is a petri dish for clean energy
A Fresno patent attorney wanted to learn about the most pressing legal needs of clean energy companies in the San Joaquin Valley.
Your emailed question got me thinking. The industry is still in its infancy, but it likely won’t be messing around with Huggies for long, especially if oil prices continue to rise, as analysts suggest. Oil-price.net still lists $99 a barrel in its one-year forecast, and pump prices continue to rise.
In my response to this attorney, I included concerns about the solar, energy efficiency, and biomass industries.
“Land use is a big problem,” I wrote. “I’ve heard that due to increasing difficulties in getting federal land secured, solar companies are moving to get private land deals. So far, those are with municipalities and small solar operations, combining them with wastewater sites ( large electricity users) in hinterlands.
I also mentioned potential interest from Westlands farmers looking for a new source of income for farmland due to restrictions on irrigation water. Hundreds of acres of dead and dried grape fields and orchards welcome passers-by to this incredibly fertile, sun-kissed valley.
My co-worker Sandy Nax, who was also my compatriot on the now-suspended Fresno Bee business desk, says the Central Valley is a veritable petri dish for clean energy with its abundant sun, wind in the foothills of the Sierra, methane-rich dairy waste and bio – plant-rich farmland.
If a series of studies prove correct (that clean energy will produce loads of jobs across the country and in California), I think those bitten by powerful American entrepreneurship will play a big role. I told the patent attorney to watch out for startups, especially those related to water and biomass.
For example, the fine of more than $800,000 recently levied on two biomass plants in Merced and Madera counties by the US Environmental Protection Agency is likely to worry people in that industry. Mark Grossi of the Fresno Bee called it “one of the state’s largest air pollution fines in recent history.”
Biomass defines the process of burning woody material and agricultural waste to generate electricity. Emissions are apart from that, as they are for biogas from methane.
Another sector worth looking at, perhaps from a lawyer’s perspective, is construction. Net zero homes, passive home movement and others are likely to become dominant features of the new home market. Other than that, it’s the retrofits, something we’re pretty familiar with at the San Joaquin Valley Clean Power Organization.
The practice of auditing buildings and improving systems that show inefficiencies is gaining traction and consumer interest. Some big players are starting to do this elsewhere. For example, the Empire State Building is now an efficiency model after a massive overhaul.
I was talking about the state of the clean energy movement with Valley hydrogen energy expert Gene Johnson, and he said the best bet for change is to talk about it with our young people. “Education is the key to all of this,” he said.
I convinced him to be one of the potential speakers at a program where we are working with Valley high schools and colleges to prepare students for clean energy and entrepreneurial opportunities. Gene is one of those amazing people who can inspire people after 5 minutes in his presence. For example, he decided he wanted a hydrogen-powered car, so he converted a bright yellow Chevy SSR to run on clean-burning fuel.
Gene is pretty optimistic about the future of clean energy. “Once people see food and gas prices go up … they’ll realize self-sufficiency is the best way to deal with that,” he said. Gene’s definition of self-sufficiency is quite global and refers to the United States being able to produce all of its own energy, from multiple sources.
Sandy and I keep up with the news, and the topic of clean energy and energy efficiency is looking pretty good. Our hope is that this industry will take off in the next two years. That may be optimistic, but things are definitely happening.
The jolt of federal stimulus money didn’t hurt. But it is limited. In fact, we’re working on a couple of stimulus grants that expire in the next 12 months. So we’re biased, a little bit.
We were encouraged by a post on grist.org by Bracken Hendricks and Jorge Madrid with the Center for American Progress in which they called “clean energy technology one of the fastest growing sectors of the global economy and is projected to grow by $2.3 trillion by 2020.”
They also said the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the official name for stimulus money) supported the nation’s fledgling clean energy industry when it was struggling due to the economy and global competition.
Great to hear that. I put a comment on your post saying as much.