Author: Maia Cheli

On the last weekend of September, HSU and Schatz Center alumnus Nate Coleman returned to Humboldt State with a team of solar professionals to lead the installation of a photovoltaic array on the roof of the Schatz Energy Research Center. Dodging between downpours, and assisted by Center staff, students, and HSU Facilities Management personnel, the team heroically completed the installation in two days.

The system is now complete except for the final electrical connections and an inspection, and should be live near the end of October. The 20 kilowatt (DC) array will produce an average of 57 kilowatt-hours per day, enough to completely power the Center’s new West Wing, with 25 kWh left over to power the main building.

The eighty modules of the solar array and the proprietary mounting hardware and connectors were donated to Humboldt State from Zep Solar through the efforts of Coleman and Jack West — a member of the Center’s Advisory Board and also an alumnus of the university.

Later this year, an array display will be installed outside the Center. Visitors will be able to see a live report of energy generated by the array, plus rooftop weather data that directly impacts array efficiency: solar radiation, air temperature and relative humidity, wind speed and direction, and the temperature of the modules. The monitor will also feature project news from the Schatz Center and data from the onsite EV charging station. The interpretive display has been funded by HEIF, the student-run Humboldt Energy Independence Fund, and NorthCAT, the Northern California Center for Alternative Transportation Fuels and Advanced Vehicle Technologies. HEIF also provided the instrumentation for the data acquisition system.

The Schatz Solar Array installation team included:

• Solar professionals: Brian Atchley, Greg Ball, Nate Coleman, Marcelo Macedo, and Ryan Woodward
• HSU Facilities: Charles Day, Travis Fleming, Ray Robinson, and Brian Toroni
• Students: Anh Bui, Carisse Geronimo, Chih-Wei Hsu, Craig Mitchell, and Anamika Singh
• Schatz staff: Charles Chamberlin, Nick Lam, Peter Lehman, Marc Marshall, Kyle Palmer, Rich Williams, and Jim Zoellick

HSU’s first electric vehicle station has already provided 60 “charge ups” in the month since fall semester began. Vehicles charged for an average of 2 hours, obtaining an average of 8 kWh of energy, up to a maximum of 31 kWh — and there were 16 times where the primary EV and the ADA parking spot were charging simultaneously.

Since the EV station was installed in early May, it has provided 126 charge ups, that powered 3,600 miles of travel, and avoided the combustion of 117 gallons of gasoline and the emission of 800 kg of CO2e.*

On October 11 at 5:30 pm in Siemens Hall 108, the Sustainable Futures Speaker Series will host a panel discussion on “Achieving 5 million zero-emission vehicles in California by 2030.” Experts from local planning, state regulation, mass transit, and advanced fuel infrastructure development will share strategies for achieving a zero-emission vehicle rollout on the north coast.

HSU’s EV charging station is located to the south of the Schatz Energy Research Center (across from the BSS building on the south side of campus). This station can provide charging for either of two adjacent parking spaces. One parking space is EV-only; parking here is limited to four hours, and the vehicle must be charging while parked. The second space is ADA parking (EV not required). HSU parking permits are required for both spaces.

*We assume a vehicle efficiency of 0.325 kWh/mi for EVs, and 31 mpg for gasoline vehicles. Carbon emissions are calculated using the gasoline carbon intensity of 8,815 g CO2e/gallon from EPA emission estimates, and HSU’s 2016 electricity carbon intensity of 192 g CO2e/kWh. (The electricity carbon intensity is the emissions rate associated with the power currently being purchased or generated by a particular source.)

On Friday, May 4, we formally dedicated our new West Wing addition. Congressional Representative Jared Huffman was joined by HSU President Lisa Rossbacher, Blue Lake Rancheria Tribal Council Member Jason Ramos, and Schatz Advisory Board members Jack West and Andrea Tuttle to celebrate the Center’s expansion.

The 1900 square foot addition is located immediately west of the main building, and includes two faculty offices, a conference room, and fourteen staff and student workstations. This increase in space has enabled us to hire nine additional student research assistants for summer 2018 to work on projects in wind energy, smart grids, biomass assessment, and off-grid energy access.

The dedication ceremony was followed by an open house with demonstrations in solar product testing, biomass energy, and microgrid management systems, an unveiling of interpretive photo galleries newly installed throughout both buildings, and the official deployment of the first electric vehicle charging station on the HSU campus.

The West Wing addition was designed by Suarez Kuehne Architecture of San Francisco and built by a team led by Adams Commercial General Contracting of Eureka. Humboldt State University Facilities Management coordinated the design and construction process. The project was fully funded by donor contributions, including major support from the estate of Louis W. Schatz, additional gifts from Anne and David Katz, Peter and Carolyn Lehman, Christina and Jack West, Jamie Everett, and Joel Lehman, and grant funding from the California Energy Commission.

A cutting-edge clean energy microgrid is coming to Humboldt County’s regional airport. Designed by the Schatz Center, the microgrid will generate green electricity, create jobs for local contractors and technicians, and provide an energy lifeline in the event of a natural disaster. Last week, the California Energy Commission announced a $5 million grant award through its EPIC program that will support $6 million in matching funding from the Redwood Coast Energy Authority (RCEA), for development of this solar + storage microgrid system.

“The Redwood Coast Energy Authority is excited to be partnering with the Schatz Center, PG&E, and the County,” said Matthew Marshall, Executive Director of the RCEA. “This project will allow us to provide enhanced resiliency and emergency-response capabilities for the airport and Coast Guard and deliver the environmental and economic benefits of developing our local renewable resources.”

Composed of a 2.3 megawatt photovoltaic array covering 9 acres—the largest in Humboldt County—and an 8 megawatt-hour battery storage system, equivalent to the batteries in 100 Tesla Model S cars, the microgrid will support 18 electric accounts including the airport and the U.S. Coast Guard Air Station.

The California Redwood Coast-Humboldt County Airport serves 50,000 flights a year and 140,000 customers, including commercial, private, and emergency medical flights. The Coast Guard Air Station Humboldt Bay provides search and rescue for 250 miles of rugged rural coastline, from the Mendocino-Sonoma County line to the California-Oregon border. Since roads into and out of Humboldt County are often closed by fires and slides, energy stability at the regional airport is crucial.

“This is a wonderful project for Humboldt County and we have a great team eager to get started,” said Peter Lehman, founding director of the Schatz Center and principal investigator for the project. “The airport microgrid will make us a safer and more resilient community and plow new ground in developing the electric grid of the future.”

As the first multi-customer microgrid in Pacific Gas and Electric’s service territory, the project will provide a test bed for the policies, tariff structures, and operating procedures necessary to integrate microgrids into California’s electric grid. Lessons learned will help the state strengthen its power grid by creating a roadmap for microgrid integration across the state.

A microgrid combines energy generation–often solar or wind power–with energy storage and smart controls to allow it to run both connected to and disconnected from the larger power grid. Under normal conditions, microgrids add power to the grid and smooth out power fluctuations, adding stability. In an outage, microgrids can “island” and supply electricity indefinitely. As extreme weather events and fires driven by climate change continue to cause regional outages, the ability to maintain independent power generation is key to local resiliency. Microgrids provide life-saving power to transportation hubs and other critical facilities like shelters, hospitals, and fire stations.

The airport microgrid is the second designed by the Schatz Center for the Humboldt Bay region. The Center’s renewable energy microgrid at the Blue Lake Rancheria (BLR) went live in 2017, providing clean energy to the BLR campus and enabling the Rancheria to operate as a Red Cross Shelter. Last fall, the Rancheria was recognized by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for its contributions to community safety.

The Schatz Energy Research Center was a major presence at the 5th Global Off-Grid Solar Forum and Expo, which took place this week in Hong Kong. The conference is the premier global event for the off-grid solar industry. Schatz Center Director Arne Jacobson was on the conference organizing committee, and six members of the Center’s off-grid team delivered presentations and facilitated discussions in conference sessions and side events over the three-day meeting.

The Schatz Center’s involvement in the conference is linked to its leadership role in the World Bank Group’s Lighting Global Quality Assurance Program, the world’s leading framework for quality assurance and consumer protection for off-grid solar products. The quality assurance program is widely used to support consumer protection for low-income families in off-grid areas of Africa, Asia, and the Pacific Islands.

The Center’s work on Lighting Global is carried out in partnership with CLASP, a D.C.-based non-profit, and it involves close collaboration with the Global Off-Grid Lighting Association (GOGLA).

• View the 2018 report on off-grid solar market trends from Lighting Global, Dalberg Advisors, and GOGLA.

The Blue Lake Rancheria (BLR) microgrid was awarded the 2018 Project of the Year Award for Distributed Energy Resources (DER) Grid Integration at the annual DistribuTECH conference held this week in San Antonio, Texas. The award was given in recognition of the project’s ingenuity, scope, practicality, vision, and follow-through.

The Schatz Energy Research Center at Humboldt State University is the project lead and system integrator. The BLR microgrid integrates a photovoltaic array, a Tesla battery, and a legacy backup generator. A Siemens management system and foundational programming developed by Schatz engineers control the microgrid, which provides renewable electricity, lowers the Rancheria’s energy costs, and supports clean energy jobs. The microgrid also provides an emergency services backbone for its remote rural community and equips the Rancheria to serve as a Red Cross shelter in the event of a natural disaster.

DER design strategically deploys power generation across multiple sites to lower impact on existing grid infrastructure and to make use of renewable technologies including solar and wind. By locating power generation close to where that power will be used, utilities are able to streamline infrastructure improvements. When microgrids are employed, these smaller generation sites can disconnect from the main grid in the event of a grid outage – protecting critical electricity supply within a campus, business, hospital, or other community facility.

The BLR microgrid was funded by the California Energy Commission’s Electric Program Investment Charge and the Blue Lake Rancheria Tribe. Major project partners include Pacific Gas & Electric, Siemens, Tesla Energy, Idaho National Laboratory, GHD Inc., Colburn Electric, REC Solar, McKeever Energy & Electric, and Kernen Construction.

The Schatz Energy Research Center develops clean and renewable energy technologies for implementation worldwide. Current projects and expertise include smart-grid design, bioenergy assessment, off-grid energy access, and clean transportation. The Center also plays a leading role in the World Bank Group’s Lighting Africa and Lighting Asia initiatives, which support high quality, affordable energy solutions for people in off-grid and marginal-grid communities. The Schatz Center is located on the campus of Humboldt State University in Arcata, California.

Press Contact:
Maia Cheli, Schatz Energy Research Center
maiacheli@humboldt.edu / 707-826-4363

The Schatz Energy Research Center is pleased to announce the Donald and Andrea Tuttle Fellowship for Clean Energy Studies at Humboldt State University. The Tuttles have established this annual fellowship as part of an effort to tackle the challenges posed by climate change, and to reduce its impacts on humanity and ecosystems. The fellowship will support graduate students in Environmental Systems who intend to research or conduct project work in renewable energy, energy efficiency, or related areas in the clean energy field.

The Tuttle Fellowship will provide $15,000 in financial support for one academic year. The recipient is also eligible to be employed on research projects at the Schatz Center (typically, quarter-time throughout the academic year). The fellowship may be renewed once, based on performance and at the discretion of Schatz Center directors and the selection committee, for a second year of study.

The Tuttle joins two fellowships already associated with the Schatz Center: the Blue Lake Rancheria Fellowship for Clean Energy Studies and the Schatz Energy Fellowship. Current year fellows are working with Center projects in off-grid energy access and smart grid technologies. Jimento Aikhuele and Anamika Singh are involved with the Center’s quality assurance project on solar system installations at public facilities in Nigeria and Niger; Aikhuele’s associated thesis is on the use of renewable energy technologies to prevent maternal and infant fatality. Steven Shoemaker is conducting a benefits analysis of the recently deployed Blue Lake Rancheria microgrid, which was recognized this fall by the US Federal Emergency Management Agency for energy resiliency, while Thalia Quinn is working on the Center’s new “Solar+” distributed generation project.

Hailing from around the globe, Schatz fellows cite the Center’s unique blend of technology and policy, and bring with them a commitment to social justice and environmental health. Before coming to the Schatz Center, Singh worked for the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, Ministry of Power, in India. “I want to contribute to providing energy access to those 1.2 billion people who are living a life without energy, through renewable energy technology… until you can provide them with basic facilities, development will not come.”

All graduate student applicants in the Environmental Resources Engineering (ERE) and Energy Technology and Policy (ETaP) pathways of the Environmental Systems program are eligible for fellowship consideration. February 1 is the annual application deadline for admission into the graduate program at Humboldt State. For more information, visit schatzcenter.org/fellowships, email serc@humboldt.edu, or call (707) 826-4345.