LED Lights, All-Electric School Buses, Hydroponic Gardens … (Cleantech in Action Series)
We’ve partnered with Technica Communications* for a monthly roundup of some of the coolest cleantech press releases in a series we are calling Cleantech in Action. Some of the highlights this month include new lights for AT & T park in San Francisco, all-electric busses for a California school district, hyper-local veggies for an Iowa grocery store, Amazon’s newest solar roof, and a1.8 MW solar ground mount built to power a museum in Massachusetts.
Over 500 LED Lights Illuminate the Home of the San Francisco Giants
Who: San Francisco Giants AT&T Park
What: 556 LED lights upgrade
Where: San Francisco, California
Vendor Utilized:
Cool Factors: 556 traditional light bulbs were upgraded to new energy efficient LED lights making a home run of energy savings for AT&T Park and the San Francisco Giants. The switch resulted in an energy savings of 290,466 kilowatt hours during the regular baseball season, which is the same amount of energy it takes to power 30 homes. The upgrade also resulted in a rebate of about $260,000. In 2010, AT&T Park was the first existing Major League Baseball (MLB) ballpark to achieve U.S. Green Building Council Certification. Read more here.
All-Electric School Buses for San Bernardino School
Who: Colton Joint Unified School District
What: Two all-electric Type-C school buses
Where: San Bernardino, California
Products and Vendors Utilized: Motiv Power Systems All-Electric Powertrain (represented by Technica Communications), Starcraft eQuest XL body, and Creative Bus Sales as the dealer
Cool Factors: The all-electric powertrains that drive these two new zero-emission school buses from Motiv Power Systems, can deliver students in Colton Joint Unified School District (CJUSD), in San Bernardino County up to 85 miles. The American-made Type C Starcraft eQuest XL school buses from Creative Bus Sales are Built on a Ford F59 chassis, with a maximum capacity of 48 passengers. Read more here.
Iowa Grocery Store Grows up to 15 Pounds of Produce on Outdoor Hydroponic Garden
Who: Hy-Vee
What: Hydroponic vertical gardens
Where: Davenport, Iowa
Product and Vendor Utilized: Two eight-tower Grow Walls by Friday’s Fresh Market
Cool Factors: The Hy-Vee grocery store is growing its own produce hydroponically with vertical gardens, on the outside of their store. They can obtain between 10 and 15 pounds of fresh produce every week, depending on the crop. The plants are suspended in a growing medium made from recycled plastic bottles, don’t require soil and grow in sunlight. FFM also installed a smaller Grow Wall inside the grocery store in the produce section. Read more here.
Amazon Unveils New Jersey’s Largest Rooftop Solar Array
Who: Amazon
What: 22,000-solar-panel energy system
Where: Carteret, New Jersey
Vendors Utilized: Sol Systems and IGS Solar
Cool Factors: Amazon unveiled what the company says is the largest rooftop solar array in New Jersey on the 30-acre roof of its Carteret facility. The company claims the 22,000-solar-panel system is one of the largest rooftop solar panel systems in the country and generates enough electricity to power 600 homes. Inside the facility, 3,000 employees work with 900 robots on a million-square-foot floor and a mezzanine to prepare and package products sold by Amazon. The system is expected to generate up to 7.5 MW of power. Read more here.
Largest Living-History Museum Now Powered by Solar
Who: Old Sturbridge Village
What: 1.8 MW solar ground mount
Where: Sturbridge, Massachusetts
Vendor Utilized: Green Street Power Partners
Cool Factors: Old Sturbridge Village, an outdoor living-history museum depicting a rural New England town from the 1830s and the largest living-history museum in the U.S. Northeast, is now powered by a 1.8 MW solar ground mount, owned and operated by Green Street Power Partners, LLC, and was designed and installed by Solect Energy of Hopkinton, MA. The system will provide Old Sturbridge Village with power at a discounted rate for 25 years, and a Solar PPA agreement is set to save the museum $1.5M in electricity. Read more here.
Other Cleantech Projects We’re Watching
Gordon Bubolz Nature Preserve advanced microgrid
New Zealand’s first electric garbage truck
*This series is sponsored by Technica Communications.
More about Technica Communications: Founded in 2009, Technica is a boutique, full-service public relations, social media, content marketing firm, based in the Silicon Valley of California.
With over 80% of its client base focused on the cleantech and sustainability markets, Technica possesses the deep expertise and contacts required to deliver top quality results in these challenging sectors. Since the majority of Technica staff have previous journalism and newsroom experience, we specialize in highly-effective reporter outreach. Technica’s domain experience includes renewable energy, energy storage, electric vehicles, green building, LED lighting, smart home products, and more.
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