Feb 19 - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News - S.L. Wykes San Jose Mercury News, Calif.

 

Palo Alto is working as fast as it can to install three new solar panel demonstration projects, including one at a prominent spot next to Highway 101.

But solar's rising popularity has put a bit of a cloud over the projects.

After many months of planning and meetings, what would have been the city's most visible array of solar panels will be delayed until this summer.

"The problem is that photovoltaic panels are in such short supply," said public works engineer Karen Bengard. "Germany and Japan are sucking it all up."

She scrambled to win an extension of the $1.4 million U.S. Department of Energy grant that was half of the project's financing.

The new solar panels that will become part of Palo Alto's landscape "will be our first homegrown green energy," Bengard said.

After some concern about whether solar panels would block drivers' view of the baylands, the largest set -- and certainly most visible -- will be at the city's Municipal Services Center on East Bayshore Road off 101.

The 12 panels, roughly 3 by 5 feet, will be perched on poles and move to follow the sun's path.

The city council had asked designers to come up with something a bit different, something not quite so conventional. But last week the council rejected by a 5-4 vote a pinwheel design supported by the city's planning and transportation committee. The majority of the council felt the unusual design might distract drivers along Highway 101 -- or overwhelm the project's mission of making people aware of solar energy's potential.

The service center's employees are grateful for another part of the project -- the solar panels will be mounted on carports that will, for the first time, provide shaded parking in about 40 spaces.

Other panels will be at Cubberley Community Center on Middlefield Road, where one building will have rooftop solar panels that people can see through and solar awnings. At the Baylands Interpretive Center, panels will be mounted on the roof, and kids can view them through a recycled World War II submarine periscope. Or, they can turn it another way and watch for a passing bird.

The city bought the periscope on eBay for $2,500, Bengard said.

Another city-owned solar project is close to completion -- a 1,177-square-foot classroom and ranger facility at the city's 609-acre Arastra preserve in the Palo Alto foothills. The building will be completely self-sufficient, including the bathroom's solar-powered water heater.

Bengard and others who worked on the projects surveyed all city-owned buildings before selecting the project sites. At one of the fire stations, there were trees that would have blocked the panels for much of the day.

The city's animal shelter has too many "roof penetrations," Bengard said. That's engineer lingo for the odds-and-ends of machinery sometimes relegated to a rooftop. In parks, the problem was baseballs flying through the air.

Cubberley has lots more open roof space, and there are some other parking lots Bengard would love to see shaded by solar panels. "But it's expensive to retrofit and only cost-effective when remodeling or rebuilding," Bengard said.

The panels at Cubberley and the Municipal Services Center will add almost 300 kilowatts of power to the city's energy pool, enough to run nearly 100 homes.

The solar demonstration projects are not the only way Palo Alto -- one of only a few cities statewide with its own electrical utility -- is raising awareness of renewable energy. Its green program has enlisted 25,000 residential customers -- and some large businesses, too -- to pay an extra 1.5 cents per kilowatt-hour to use energy from the wind and sun. That's 14 percent of the city's utility users.

 

Contact S.L. Wykes at swykes@mercurynews.com or (650) 688-7599.