Sonoma Clean Power works with local businesses to fight climate change
On August 3, the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution to lower Mendocino County’s carbon footprint to zero. Strategies included solar panels and batteries at all municipal buildings, installing more electric vehicle chargers, and converting the busses to electric.
Sonoma Clean Power, a local public power company focused on renewable energy, will oversee executing these strategies. While SCP will be working with Mendocino County on the resolution, it has already partnered up with Surf Mart, a grocery store in Gualala.
According to Caroline Ducato, marketing director of Surf Mart, Surf Mart started looking into the EverGreen program with SCP a few years ago.
“Grocery stores are real energy hogs,” Ducato says. “Our refrigerators are running 24 hours a day to hold perishable items.” According to Ducato, finding better energy solutions was important to Surf Mart owner Steve May.
SCP’s EverGreen program comprises of 100% renewable energy, with daytime energy coming from the solar field in Willits and nighttime energy coming from geothermal power plants. While the powerlines belong to PG&E, the power itself comes from SCP.
About eight months ago, Surf Mart was able to make the investment into switching. According to Ducato, it took a bit of financial planning as EverGreen is about 10% more expensive than conventional PG&E energy. However, customer feedback has been positive.
Surf Mart created a signage program so the customers know where the grocery store’s power comes from. These signs and infographics are in the parking lot, among the shelves, on the floor, and wherever the customer might look.
Other local businesses, spurred on by May, have also reached out to SCP to make the switch to EverGreen soon. Mendocino County residents can also switch from conventional power to the EverGreen program.
According to Geof Syphers, CEO of SCP, SCP originally focused on renewable energy systems when it was created in 2014. However, within a few years, it expanded into creating infrastructure for electric cars and finding new ways to combat climate change. The company has installed 46 public vehicle chargers, including 3 super-fast charger stations, while also installing about 500 at-home vehicle chargers in Mendocino County. SCP has recently started looking at farms, dairies, and forestry groups to pull carbon out of the air and put it back into the ground.
SCP also works on creating microgrids, or an independent energy system that supports a very local area. For example, hospitals are often on microgrids so they can continue having power even when the power has been shut off by PG&E.
According to Syphers, Fort Bragg advanced a microgrid proposal more than a year ago to keep their hospital fully operational during the public safety power shut-off events. Originally PG&E turned down the proposal. SCP worked with the CA Public Utilities Commission to ask PG&E to reconsider, and PG&E is reconsidering the proposal now. Currently, the hospital uses diesel generators to remain operational during a public safety power shut-off event.
The public safety power shut-off events are another target of SCP. SCP has been a vocal proponent of undergrounding powerlines and adding switches to make the shut-offs less frequent, shorter, and impact smaller areas at a time. SCP researches where the most efficient work can be done.
For example, according to Syphers, there are powerlines that feed into both
Ukiah and Sonoma County, so undergrounding those lines would protect both Sonoma County and Ukiah. However, that decision has to be made by PG&E. Undergrounding powerlines can be an expensive process.
“It’s just a matter of cost,” Syphers said. “The tradeoffs are between undergrounding the powerline and the cost of that vs the risk of burning down the forest or a city…Right now, PG&E is more or less in charge of that decision and we’re trying to make it so it’s more of a community-based decision.”