Work Starts on Oxy Solar Array

L.A.’s largest solar array project will feed homes in Eagle Rock and beyond.

After two years of developing one of the largest solar arrays not just in L.A. but possibly on any college campus in America, Occidental College has begun work on a 4,886-panel project that will generate about 11 percent of the campus’ annual power consumption while removing 1,250 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the air every year—the equivalent of keeping 250 automobiles off the road. The $6.8 million, 1-megawatt project--which has been endorsed by the Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council, TERA and CD 14 Council Member Josè Huizar--will be completed this coming spring. Incorporating an innovative and aesthetic ground-mounted design, the project's largely hillside panels will feed home solar installations in Eagle Rock, Highland Park and …

•  4 Comments
• Photos (2)

Oxy Offers $2,000 Solar Rebate

Attend a workshop Wednesday to find out how homeowners and small-business owners in the 90041, 90042 and 90065 zip codes can benefit.

This coming Wednesday, at 7 p.m., Occidental College will offer homeowners and small business owners in Eagle Rock, Highland Park and Mt. Washington an opportunity to be a part of a solar-based alternative energy project that promises to make Oxy something of a pioneering trendsetter in environmental conservation. The Project A 1-megawatt solar array on two undeveloped on-campus acres of the sunset-facing slope of Fiji Hill and on cantilevered solar shade structures on an adjacent parking lot. The project, which will use some of the smallest, most efficient and therefore relatively expensive solar panels available, is aimed at generating about 11 percent of Oxy’s annual power consumption while removing 1,250 metric tons of carbon dioxide …

•  1 Comment
• Photos (2)

Maggie Freed

1:11 pm on Monday, July 25, 2011

Very exciting! Kudos to Oxy for taking this step.   more ›

Eco Soul

NELA's 2 Megawatt Solar Challenge

How Northeast L.A. can become a center of solar energy.

“To pretend that the world is a garden is … a turning away from the woes that keep it from being one." —Rebecca Solnit. In my New Year’s column on ways to make Eagle Rock greener in 2011, I called for three megawatts of solar power to be installed in Eagle Rock: a megawatt at Occidental College, another among area businesses and institutions, plus a megawatt spread among homeowners. Let’s revise that to two megawatts over the next year and extend the geography to include our neighboring communities of Highland Park, Mt. Washington and Glassell Park. Here’s how we can do it: As part of an effort to stimulate interest in alternative energy production and to green the campus, Occidental College hopes to install a one-megawatt solar array on …

•  7 Comments
• Photos (4)

Ajay Singh

9:22 am on Monday, June 13, 2011

Thanks, Jan—good to hear from you and to notice that, given the choice, you prefer Solar, with a capital S. I don't think I have heard a more compelling Solar story than yours. But please also tell us—or feel free to blog!—about your intriguing and unfinished story from the recent TERA fundraiser (at Bonnie's house) about something I could never have imagined regarding our solar miracle: The …   more ›

Eco Soul

Northeast L.A. Needs to Gaze More Intensely at the Sun

We have to get used to seeing solar arrays in our backyards.

On sunny Southern California days of the kind we've been having lately, it’s easy to dream of a solar-powered future. But it will take more than dreaming to capture the promise of abundant energy from the sun. Solar currently represents just above 0.1 percent of the almost 95 quadrillion BTUs of energy generated for use as fuel and electricity in the United States annually. (“BTU” stands for British Thermal Unit—roughly the amount of energy needed to heat a pound of water from 39° F to 40° F.) How can we expand solar to be more than a drop in the bucket of the energy mix in this country, especially in our sun-friendly region? More solar will help us move away from sources such as coal that have massive negative repercussions on health and …

•  7 Comments
• Photos (4)