By: Phil Villagomez

  1. Home
  2. TerraBlog

Keeping the Lights On: Navigating the Clean Energy Transition with Nancy Chaires Espinoza

As part of the 2024 “Power Chat” series, TerraVerde Energy spoke with Nancy Chaires Espinoza about renewable energy challenges and opportunities for California schools.  She touched on several issues including legislative and policy concerns, the energy challenges smaller districts face, …

Energy Chat With Matt Belasco of Pittsburg USD

Phil Villagomez here, welcoming you to the inaugural edition of TerraVerde’s “Energy Chat Blog.” I recently had the privilege of interviewing Matt Belasco of Pittsburg Unified School District, and I cannot think of a better leader to interview for this …

Utility Rate Hikes And The Impact On California School Districts

While many of us have been ringing in the new year, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and other state utilities have been ringing in significant new rate hikes.  PG&E has announced utility rate hikes of 13%, a slight relief …

An Emerging Threat to Solar Savings for Schools

Does your school district have active solar PV systems?  If so, you will want to be aware of this new threat to your project’s long-term savings.

For many California school districts, the investments they have made in deploying solar PV …

Deadline Approaching for Valuable DOE Grant Program

The Department of Energy is seeking applications for the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program (EECBG).  The program has been funded with $550,000,000 and will consist of both formula and competitive grants.

Formula grants are issued to states each …

CARB Adopts Advanced Clean Fleets Regulation

Today, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) formally adopted the Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) regulation which requires a swift and complete shift away from conventional vehicles to Zero-Emission Vehicles (ZEV) for public agency fleets (among others).

CARB’s Advanced Clean Fleet

…

Calculating Solar & Battery Savings

Organizations that deploy solar PV systems and battery energy storage systems usually do so for many reasons including sustainability goals and demonstrating environmental stewardship. However, the chief reason for adopting solar and battery solutions is often anticipated energy cost savings. …

Best Practices in Solar PV Asset Management: Dedicated System Monitoring

For owners and site hosts of solar PV systems, rapid detection and resolution of performance impacting events can provide cost saving benefits that are essential to the success of solar distributed energy resources.  Given the nature of commercial and industrial …

Picture orange sky over San Francisco during wildfires

Wildfire Ash Impacts on Solar PV Systems

For organizations in California with solar PV systems, “soiling” can be a constant battle.  Solar panels only work at peak efficiency when their surface area is clean and free of build-up, allowing full absorption of solar irradiance. Soiling buildup reduces …

Revenue Opportunities for Existing Solar and Battery Systems

Many public agencies and commercial enterprises have deployed solar and battery systems in order to reduce their energy costs and meet their sustainability goals. While many are familiar with the cost savings benefits of these technologies, fewer are familiar with …