Perris, Calif., located southeast of Los Angeles, is a fast-growing community with an estimated 53,000-plus residents. To cope with the resulting costly environmental load the city has undertaken and is taking part in, and is supporting several key green projects and initiatives.
The Solar Shine Program
The City of Perris entered into a public-private partnership with Honeywell for a solar and energy conservation project of that name, taking advantage of the community’s receipt of some 275 solar radiation days per year, providing $1.7 million in energy and operational savings over 20 years.
The centerpiece of the program, says Honeywell (News - Alert), was the installation of solar panels on the roofs of carports at the Perris library, senior center, fire house, corporate yard and City Hall. The custom SolarPorts, designed by SPG Solar are capable of producing 370 kilowatts of electricity annually: enough energy to power about 100 homes per year.
Honeywell augmented Solar Shine with traditional energy conservation measures, including lighting retrofits, high-efficiency heating and cooling units, and programmable thermostats, to improve city facilities and building systems. These upgrades provide the city with better control and comfort at its facilities while reducing energy consumption.
This will save the city nearly $55,000 annually.
Honeywell installed the solar arrays without any increases to the City of Perris’ operating budgets or additional costs to taxpayers. In turn the company operates and maintains the arrays while providing electricity to the city at a competitive price compared to conventional utility rates over the next 20 years.
Western City, which is published by the League of California Cities reports that the energy conservation savings are guaranteed through a performance contract with Honeywell. The Solar Shine Program made use of California’s Self-Generation Incentive Program, which provides incentives to support new and emerging distributed energy resources, and Honeywell’s ability to utilize federal investment tax credits.
The program has been multi-win. Honeywell says that in the first six month after construction, the solar panels generated 112,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity: more than half the estimated annual power production. That’s enough energy to cover 20 percent of Perris’ electricity needs, surpassing the goals in the general plan by 300 percent. The solar carports and traditional energy conservation measures are also expected to reduce the city’s annual carbon dioxide emissions by 960,000 pounds.
Not surprisingly the program has won accolades. These include the Helen Putnam Award for Excellence, the Urban Land Institute Sustainable Cities Award, and the American Planning Association's National Planning Excellence Award for Innovation in Green Community Planning.
“Not only has the project resulted in higher than expected energy savings,” Mayor Daryl Busch told Western Cities, “it has also served as a catalyst for the city and the development community to consider incorporating greener building practices into future developments.”
New Solar-Power-Assisted Distribution Centers
Not content to seeing its buildings going green, the City of Perris has been encouraging, through fast-tracking approvals, new industrial buildings that go environment-friendly. This includes a new 1.3-million square foot Hanesbrands distribution center that recently earned recognition as a LEED building (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) by the United States Green Building Council.
The Hanesbrands building incorporates skylights, energy efficient ventilation systems, roll-up doors for cross ventilation, electric vehicles and bicycles for employees to get around in, and drought-resistant landscaping. The roof is painted white to reflect sunlight and heat. There’s even a high-end cafeteria to keep employees from driving their cars off site on their lunch breaks. The warehouse will become even more energy efficient when solar panels are installed in the near future.
Perris City Council recently moved ahead with plans for another 900,000-square-foot distribution center just north of the Hanes site. Mayor Daryl Busch said city officials hope a future center will also be a LEED building. Plans call for that site to be built by the Ridge Property Trust.
“We are doing things on a grand scale in a small town,” said Perris Planning Manager Brad Eckhardt. “It’s another example of our commitment to sustainability and shows once again how the City has been able to forge an innovative public-private partnership.”
New (and Free) CNG-Powered Public Works Truck
The City of Perris received, without dipping into its municipal budget, a new 4WD Chevrolet maintenance truck that runs on compressed natural gas (CNG) thanks to the Southern California’s Air Quality Management District which picked up the $127,000 price tag (News - Alert). The vehicle comes fully-rigged with on-board crane can hoist the front end of a road grader so a flat tire can be changed without having to call pricey towing companies. Its welder can fix a broken blade from a city bulldozer and quickly put it back on the job. There is a specialty lighting system can illuminate a large area at night and here’s plenty of space for tool boxes.
The fuel system can hold enough compressed natural gas to fuel other vehicles should they run dry too. While CNG is extremely clean-burning fuel: it produces a lot fewer emissions than gasoline or diesel, it does require more on-board storage capacity to produce the same amount of energy.
Metrolink Regional Rail on Track to Arrive in 2011
Metrolink, southern California’s successful regional passenger rail system, is expected to reach Perris in 2011 on a 23-mile five station extension of its 91 Line that currently terminates in Riverside. The project, which is costing $168 million to build, will draw in 5,700 riders daily and cut down on emissions and land use by riding in Metrolink’s double-deck trains propelled by modern, efficient diesel locomotives.
Passenger trains use much less energy and land to move people than cars, carpools, and where there is high volume, than buses, and are generally more attractive to motorists than buses. Metrolink estimates that system-wide over 67 percent of its customers formerly drove or carpooled alone.
Brendan B. Read is TMCnet’s Senior Contributing Editor. To read more of Brendan’s articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by
Michael Dinan
