2016 UC Solar Research Symposium

The University of California Advanced Solar Technologies Institute (UC Solar) is pleased to invite you to this year's UC Solar Research Symposium.

2016 UC Solar Research Symposium

Friday, October 7th, 2016, 8:00 am - 4:00 pm 

The University of California, Davis 

Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center 

530 Alumni Lane 

Davis, CA  95616

Speakers include:

Alex Padilla, California Secretary of State 

David Hochschild, Commissioner, California Energy Commission (CEC) 

Howard Branz, Founder and Principal, Branz Technology Partners LLC 

David Gelbaum, CEO, Entech Solar 

Hamid Abbasi, Senior Technical Staff, Gas Technology Institute (GTI) 

David Phillips, Associate Vice President for Energy and Sustainability, UC Office of the President (UCOP) 

Roland Winston, UC Solar Director and Distinguished Professor of Engineering and Natural Sciences, UC Merced 

Umesh Mishra, UC Solar Co-Director and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, UC Santa Barbara 

Matthew Law, UC Solar Co-Director and Director of the Center for Solar Energy, UC Irvine 

Alfredo Martinez-Morales, UC Solar Co-Director and Managing Director of the Southern California-Research Initiative for Solar Energy (SC-RISE), 

UC Riverside 

You can register now by going to: http://ucsolar.org/2016-solar-symposium

As always, the event is open to the public and there is no charge to attend. 

About UC Solar

The University of California Advanced Solar Technologies Institute (UC Solar) is a multi-campus research institute made up of faculty and students from the University of California’s Merced, Berkeley, Santa Barbara, Davis, San Diego, Riverside, Santa Cruz, Irvine and Los Angeles campuses. Headquartered at UC Merced, UC Solar develops innovative technologies that make solar energy systems more efficient, more affordable, and easier to integrate. In addition, UC solar educates and develops tomorrow’s solar energy leaders and entrepreneurs.

Solar's Emerging Power In Central California

Solar power continues to expand in the central San Joaquin Valley, where projects in Fresno and Tulare counties are coming online. Today, PG&E symbolically flips the switch on three power stations near Five Points that will deliver enough solar energy to run 15,000 houses. Here is more from The Fresno Bee.

And here is a report on an interesting project a county away, where Dinuba officials will affix more than 4,700 solar panels to a landfill, and then use the 1 megawatt of power to operate the city's wastewater treatment plant. Typically, those types of facilities are among a city's biggest energy hogs.

Dinuba isn't the first city to use solar energy to decrease power bills at its water treatment plant, and likely won't be the last, as we reported in this blog that outlined similar projects in the Valley - and other possible uses for solar.

Solar is making its way onto rooftops, into agriculture operations and even onto roads. How much it expands remains to be seen, but the potential is sunny, considering California's 33 percent renewables mandate, the falling cost of residential systems and improving technology.

Just yesterday, folks at at UC Merced (oh, how we love UC Merced and its top-notch research programs!) announced a new kind of solar system that doesn't have to track the sun. Read more here in the Merced Sun-Star.

Maybe, Gov. Jerry Brown was right when he predicted a solar revolution in California.

Clean Energy: The Pathway To A New Economy

Tim Sheehan's story in yesterday's Fresno Bee touches on a familiar theme here in the San Joaquin Valley: Diversifying the employment base.

The Valley is the nation's salad bowl. Its farmers produce $20 billion worth of food and fiber annually, most of which ends up on dinner tables worldwide or, in the case of cotton, is woven into shirts and other products sold in department stores.

But farm labor, which projections show could increase in demand, is not necessarily high paying. And the other projected growth industries in the Valley - retail and food service - also don't require much education and training - and pay low wages.

Thus, the need for creating new industries. The most obvious: renewable energy.

The resource-rich Valley is well positioned to be a leader in alternative energy. UC Merced recognizes that, and is conducting cutting-edge solar-energy research. Officials there see the Valley's sun resources as an attribute.

Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison recently announced or turned the switch on major solar projects. Farmers are increasingly embracing sun, methane and biofuels. The wind turbine-rich Tehachapi and Altamont passes are off our southern and northern tips respectively.

And there is something else: an increasing recognition that Valley officials are onto something. In October, the Valley was designated an Innovation Hub (iHub), which is designed to foster partnerships, economic development and job creation around specific research clusters.

UC Merced, California State University, Fresno, (which has innovative water and agriculture programs) and the Central Valley Business Incubator are key stakeholders in the iHub, which will focus on the interrelated issues of agriculture technology, water and energy.

"The iHub brings us together and gets us talking, " said Mike Dozier, interim director of the
Office of Community & Economic Development at Fresno State.

In addition, high schools and colleges are starting to expand green programs, studies are starting to reinforce the potential of green jobs here and elsewhere, and legislation is starting to include the Valley in proposed green programs.

Our non-profit, the San Joaquin Valley Clean Energy Organization, has a Web site that provides lesson plans and other resources to high school teachers, and job links to students and job seekers, and a component in a proposed bill would provide millions to facilitate green energy projects in the Valley.

With low incomes, a robust population growth rate, high power bills and asthma rates and a jobless rate that exceeds Appalachia, the Valley needs clean energy more than most places. Some people contend the Valley could generate enough power to be self-sustaining - or even a power producer.

Look at a map: The San Joaquin Valley is dead center in the state, is ringed by research universities such as UC Merced, Fresno State, Cal Poly and UC Davis, and is sandwiched between major population centers of Southern California, The Bay area and Sacramento that consume gobs of electricity.

Of course, budget issues are a factor. Deficits abound, but Dozier says those shouldn't curtail efforts. "We need to do what we can within the limitations of what we have," he said. "We need to grow intelligently."

Renewable energy could be to the San Joaquin Valley what high tech is to Silicon Valley and Hollywood is to Los Angeles.