Berry Leader Driscoll's Transitions Santa Maria Cooling Facility To Solar

The Transformation Is The First of

More Renewable Energy Updates To Come From The Berry Company  

WATSONVILLE, CALIF. (Aug. 11, 2021) – Driscoll’s has installed 3,384 solar panels on its 155,000 square-foot cooling facility in Santa Maria, Calif., which is estimated to generate 1.4 million kilowatt-hours of power annually.

In addition to solar power, Driscoll’s has installed a battery storage system that can hold up to 700 kilowatt-hours. Together, both systems will allow the company to offset about 92% of the facility’s energy usage, generating a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to removing more than 7,750 cars from the road over the course of 25 years. 

The solar installation in Santa Maria is one of many, as Driscoll’s is in the early stages of pursuing clean and alternative energy sources for its owned and operated coolers across North America.  

“The solar installation in Santa Maria is the first of several planned energy investments,” said J. Miles Reiter, Driscoll’s chairman, and CEO. “We view this inaugural installation as a commitment to Santa Maria, our employees, and our local growers. It’s an investment in our future by having clean technology to support our local operations.” 

In support of Driscoll’s transformation of its cooling facility to solar power, Driscoll’s employees, community members, and local dignitaries, including Santa Maria Mayor Alice Patino, gathered at the facility for a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Patino commended Driscoll’s for elevating agriculture’s longstanding positive impact on the community by leading with clean and renewable energy. The event was a celebration of Driscoll’s renewable energy milestone and its future alternative energy investments.

As a community-based business, Driscoll’s is committed to growing in harmony with the environment and growing communities it depends on. The commitment challenges Driscoll’s to assess its dependency and impact on local resources, including the energy grid. Berries are a delicate and perishable fruit that must be kept in controlled temperatures as much as possible, which requires a significant amount of energy consumption. Driscoll’s decision to transform its Santa Maria facility to clean energy is a continuation of its 50-year commitment to the community, employees, and local grower network.

About Driscoll’s

Driscoll’s is the global market leader of fresh strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries. With more than 100 years of farming heritage, Driscoll’s is a pioneer of berry flavor innovation and the trusted consumer brand of Only the Finest Berries™. With more than 900 independent growers around the world, Driscoll’s develops exclusive patented berry varieties using only traditional breeding methods that focus on growing great-tasting berries. A dedicated team of agronomists, breeders, sensory analysts, plant pathologists and entomologists help grow baby seedlings that are then grown on local family farms. Driscoll’s now serves consumers year-round across North America, Australia, Europe and China in over twenty-two countries.

Noor III is The Newest Stage of The Ouarzazate Solar Power Station in Ouarzazate, Morocco

Noor III is the newest stage of the Ouarzazate Solar Power Station in Ouarzazate, Morocco. This site utilizes a concentrated solar power (CSP) tower design with 7,400 heliostat mirrors that focus the sun’s thermal energy toward the top of an 820-foot-high (250 meters) tower at its center.

At the top of the tower, there is molten salt, which is used in this process due to its ability to get very hot (500–1022°F / 260–550°C). The molten salt then circulates from the tower to a storage tank, where it is used to produce steam and generate electricity.

The Noor III CSP tower can produce and then store enough energy to provide continuous power to the surrounding area for ten days.

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What Went Into Building Europe’s Largest Floating Solar Park

For centuries the Dutch have been inventive with their use of water development, but Rotterdam's Floating Solar takes it to a whole new level

By Jeanine Barone

March 26, 2021

Floating Solar will move with the sun through the arc of a day, providing more opportunity for solar energy production. All images are courtesy of Evides

The Dutch have always been inspired by the water—no surprise, considering the country borders the North Sea and its interior is speckled with an abundance of lakes, ponds, and waterways. Land is scarce in the Netherlands. And much of the terrain, including Rotterdam, the second-largest city, sits below sea level. This fact has spurred a concerted eco-consciousness and inventive use of water for technological developments, including generating electricity. Enter Floating Solar, a Dutch company that creates innovative renewable solar systems, including Europe’s largest floating, sun-tracking solar park that’s just four miles from central Rotterdam. (In several months, they’ll have three even bigger ones generating electricity in the Netherlands.) Collaborating with Floating Solar, Evides Waterbedrijf, a company that supplies drinking water to more than two million consumers and companies in the Netherlands, is home to this unconventional assembly.

"We see it as our social responsibility to contribute to our national sustainability goals and to the Dutch energy transition," says Dirk Mathijssen, program manager. Almost 3,000 solar panels stretch across a circular platform that’s 345 feet in diameter (essentially an island) that floats in a seven-some-acre reservoir, where Evides stores river water before it’s treated to become drinking water. "By using this water surface, we ensure that the scarce land remains available for other purposes," Mathijssen explains.

The solar park yield is 20 to 30% more energy than with static (land) systems, mainly due to the fact that it rotates with the sun while allowing the water beneath to cool the solar panels. 

Unlike what we’re accustomed to with land-based solar panels that are mounted on a stationary surface, here, thanks to solar-sensors embedded in the platform and a series of anchor cables and winches, the entire rig rotates, allowing the solar panels to track the sun’s movement across the sky.

These floating, sun-tracking solar panels offer myriad advantages. According to Kees-Jan van der Geer, general manager at Floating Solar, "The energy yield is 20 to 30% higher than with static (land) systems." That’s because this system is highly efficient, both due to the fact that it keeps its eye on the sun, so to speak, and also the water has a cooling effect on the solar panels. The result: this distinctive assemblage generates about 15% of the electricity that Evides consumes at this water processing site, a significant amount, to be sure. (Evides also employs a number of land-based solar panels, the entire set up producing an impressive two gigawatts of electricity, an amount that some 650 households might use, on average, in a year.)

“Be prepared” could be Floating Solar’s motto, given that they’ve taken into consideration a variety of problems that can befall floating solar panels. For example, Rotterdam can often see powerful winds gusting across the city. So, they’ve implemented sensors to monitor wind forces, the height of waves and many other variables, making the system stormproof, explains van der Geer. If the wind gusts at 47 to 53 m.p.h., "we turn the island square into the wind so it blows through the rows of solar panels."

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The solar panels have been designed to take nesting birds and potential harm from strong winds into account.

And then there are the birds that might think about alighting on the panels, leaving droppings, or building nests, situations that would reduce the system’s efficiency. That's why the solar panels are set at an angle that's not conducive to bird visits.

The future, for Evides, seems quite green—a commitment to environmental consciousness that is understandable, given the need to protect and preserve its water sources. With the floating and land-based solar panels, “we are aiming to be energy neutral by somewhere between 2025 and 2030," says Mathijssen.

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USA - KENTUCKY - Plan: Convert Coal Mine Into Vertical Farm

August 27, 2020

By Wes Mills, Content Manager

FISHERS - Fishers-based Land Betterment Corp. is putting in a bid for an abandoned coal mining operation in western Kentucky, with hopes to turn the land into an ag-tech focused business development.

The company’s business model involves acquiring former coal mines and other industrial sites and convert them into sustainable community development projects.

In June, Inside INdiana Business reported on Land Betterment’s plan to convert an old mine in Greene county into farm-to-bottle craft distillery.

The company says it made an offer to acquire certain assets of the Kentucky thermal coal mining operation after the mine’s owner filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this year.

“If it were to be successful in the acquisition, Land Betterment plans to permanently close the thermal coal operations, undertake the complete environmental remediation of the land associated with the mining complex, and establish new businesses on the land to create economic diversification and jobs that support the local communities in a new and sustainable way,” said a company statement. 

Land Betterment’s plan includes upcycling the 280-acre property into an ag-tech location for indoor vertical farms and a number of bee apiaries.

It also wants to place a commercial-grade solar farm on up to 200 acres of the land.

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