{"id":3121,"date":"2011-08-16T20:53:19","date_gmt":"2011-08-17T03:53:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/?p=4258"},"modified":"2011-08-16T20:59:30","modified_gmt":"2011-08-17T03:59:30","slug":"idyllwild-water-district-also-solar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2011\/08\/16\/idyllwild-water-district-also-solar\/","title":{"rendered":"Idyllwild Water District also solar"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Idyllwild Water District staff and directors stand in front of the photovolataic panels which convert the solar rays into electricity. From the left are Directors Jim Billman and Warren Monroe and Mark Klingaman, water treatment technician I , and Ed Copelin, Water Department chief operator. Photo: J.P. Crumrine<\/figcaption><\/figure>
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A close up of the photovoltaic panels. Photo: J.P. Crumrine<\/figcaption><\/figure>\u201cLet the sunshine, let the sunshine in,\u201d are lyrics to the Fifth Dimension\u2019s popular 1969 song and are still poignant today in Idyllwild. The Idyllwild Water District (IWD) operates a 42-kilowatt solar power generation plant at its Foster Lake facility.<\/p>\n

Although the solar facility was dedicated in May 2006, the solar panels have been collecting and converting the sun\u2019s rays into earthly electricity since August 2005.<\/p>\n

In these six years, IWD has generated more than 400,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity. That is enough energy to power an average 40 households in a year. Southern California Edison compares it to the energy for nearly 8,000 homes in a day or the energy to brew more than 14.7 million cups of coffee.<\/p>\n

Even as this story is being written, the facility is generating more than 24 kilowatts. It operates year-round, producing power to run pumps for six wells, the water treatment plant and the inter-tie booster \u2014 all located at Foster Lake.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s efficient, it saves some money and it\u2019s good for the community,\u201d says Allan Morphett, IWD president. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe solar system provides us a hedge against escalating utility energy costs,\u201d said Terry Lyons, IWD general manager. Other benefits of the system include the avoidance of additional greenhouse gases. IWD\u2019s solar plant has produced electricity, which, if generated from coal or natural gas, would have produced nearly 500,000 pounds of carbon dioxide.<\/p>\n

The plant\u2019s construction costs were $310,000, which IWD and Southern California Edison (SCE) shared. Through July, IWD has saved more than $45,000. In addition, recent state legislation (A.B. 920) authorizes Edison to pay solar generators, such as IWD, for producing excess electricity, which is fed into Edison\u2019s grid.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see the arrows on the meters point backwards when we are supplying them,\u201d said Ed Copelin, IWD\u2019s Water Department chief operator. Edison installed the bi\u00addirectional meter to track the net difference between the amount of electricity a customer produces and the amount consumed.<\/p>\n

According to Lyons and Directors Jim Billman and Warren Monroe, IWD could expand its solar capacity at Foster Lake. \u201cWe could double our size,\u201d Monroe said.<\/p>\n

This would provide power for other Foster Lake systems such as the aeration treatment plant, the two fuel tanks, the maintenance shop and other Foster Lake wells, according to Lyons.<\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially in the winter months where we use less power, sizing a larger system would provide more surplus power to sell to SCE,\u201d Lyons said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very happy with the performance now. This is near perfect,\u201d Lyons said. But to get to this point, IWD and its consultant manufacturer had to spend much time adjusting its equipment in order to assure that an Edison power failure would not shut down the Foster Lake facilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time, it was new technology and in the research lab,\u201d Monroe said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis system is one-of-a kind. If there is a power blackout our stand-alone system can continue to operate [IWD\u2019s] facilities ...,\u201d Lyons said. \u201cOther solar systems are not stand-alone systems and can\u2019t provide the needed thrust power. The solar system provides us the assurance and the peace of mind knowing we will have continued power for the delivery of water supplies.\u201d\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cLet the sunshine, let the sunshine in,\u201d are lyrics to the Fifth Dimension\u2019s popular 1969 song and are still poignant today in Idyllwild. The Idyllwild Water District (IWD) operates a 42-kilowatt solar power generation plant at its Foster Lake facility. Although the solar facility was dedicated in May 2006, the solar panels have been collecting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":3123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"amp_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nIdyllwild Water District also solar • Idyllwild Town Crier<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2011\/08\/16\/idyllwild-water-district-also-solar\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\">\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/\",\"name\":\"Idyllwild Town Crier\",\"description\":\"Almost All the News \\u2014\\u00a0Part of the Time\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2011\/08\/16\/idyllwild-water-district-also-solar\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/iwd2.jpg\",\"width\":\"500\",\"height\":\"333\",\"caption\":\"A close up of the photovoltaic panels. Photo: J.P. Crumrine\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2011\/08\/16\/idyllwild-water-district-also-solar\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2011\/08\/16\/idyllwild-water-district-also-solar\/\",\"name\":\"Idyllwild Water District also solar • Idyllwild Town Crier\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2011\/08\/16\/idyllwild-water-district-also-solar\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-08-17T03:53:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-08-17T03:59:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#\/schema\/person\/aeae3367986290257fc0e23a23079bb5\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2011\/08\/16\/idyllwild-water-district-also-solar\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#\/schema\/person\/aeae3367986290257fc0e23a23079bb5\",\"name\":\"JP Crumrine\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/289a47b0cbb194a66eb24aa93f19f915?s=96&d=retro&r=g\",\"caption\":\"JP Crumrine\"},\"description\":\"JP Crumrine is news editor of the Idyllwild Town Crier newspaper.\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3121"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3121"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3160,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3121\/revisions\/3160"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}