National Builders Supply is installing a 8.3 net kW system made by Kyocera Co. - one of the world’s largest solar panel manufacturers and is ready to install similar systems on area buildings, homes, hospitals and businesses.  “We’ll be the first guinea pigs” says co-owner Dennis Smith noting the system will not allow the company to detach from the grid but sell electricity to SCE through the “net-metering” program.

As of May 16 the California Energy Commission increased a rebate program up to $4.50 per watt or 50% of the system purchase price (whichever is less) fueling a surge in solar panel interest statewide in the past few weeks.  The Energy Commission funded the rebate program at $50 million.

Smith says the firm has had strong interest from the cities of Farmersville, Visalia and Fresno about installation of the panels.

Visalia city engineer Lew Nelson said he is recommending the city look at solar panels for municipal buildings including the Convention Center and fire stations.

The issue came up at this week’s Visalia City Council meeting.  “We want to be very aggressive on this - it’s the right thing to do,” said city manager Steve Salomon before the meeting.  Council is considering its mid cycle review of the budget for 2001-02.

With NBS located right next to city hall in Farmersville, there has been discussion of solar panels being installed above a city parking lot that could both provide shade for the cars and make power.  A similar system is installed at Cal Expo in Sacramento, says Smith - making enough power for 180 homes.

The cost for the system to power an office and showroom like they have at NBS doesn’t come cheap.  Smith estimated their system could cost $75,000 and with the rebate that cost would be half of that.  More than 10,000 homes nationwide are exclusively powered by solar but mostly in remote sites.

Smith says people will look at an energy system for their home as long term investment that they can pay over a 25 year period to make the cost more affordable.  Congress is also talking about federal tax credits.

Besides the Farmersville company, North Fork based Off Line installs solar systems to produce electricity and has been using solar to power their business for 18 years.

Co-owner of the company Cynthia Loweburg says the cost for installing an electricity producing system at a typical home is about $8000 a kilowatt with an average home requiring about 4kw.  That puts the cost of the home system tied to the grid at $32,000.  “You will be getting a check from the state for $16,000 within a month of installing it,” says Loweburg, whose company has done 200 or so systems in the central valley over the past 18 years - a number of them in Three Rivers.  “What’s new is the high cost of electricity and additional incentive up to $4.50 a watt,” says Loweburg “shortening the pay back time for installation.”  She says the ability to tie into the grid without a battery decreases the amount needed to “go solar”.

“Changes in the inverter technology allowing a tie-in to the grid” made today’s current development possible, she says.  Net metering has been around since 1995.  Solar panels have improved as well over the years.

Thermal solar energy relates to water heating “but that is different technology,” says Loweburg.  “That saves gas and there is a $750 rebate for that too” although their company doesn’t offer this service.

Loweburg says typically a roof top solar system can be installed in a few months making it possible to have a system on your roof by the end of summer.  “You want to right size your system because the utility doesn’t pay you for extra power,” she notes.

The cost of solar system can range from $5000 and up.  In Sacramento the municipal utility advertises a system that costs $10,000 with half of that cost paid by the SMUD that generates about half the power needed to a typical home.

President Clinton started the federal Million Solar Roofs Initiative that continues today offering grants to those who qualify.  The goal of the initiative is to install a million solar panel systems in the US, many of the systems are on schools - 1000 watt systems that provide power and a learning experience for students.

Smith explains that net metering means that at the end of the year Edison sends a statement settling up whether you owe them money or they owe you more power.  The meter keeps  track of the “net difference.”

There is some piece of mind in that you don’t need to worry about the price of oil or natural gas or politics” with solar system tied to the grid you make the power when the sun shines and send it on to the grid and remain a utility customer for power made by somebody else when you need it.

The state is pushing the idea of more so-called distributed energy systems - small power systems dispersed closer to the need that may go a long way toward easing California’s energy crisis.  Disbursed energy systems can be solar, small wind turbines or fuel cells technology.

Besides full power systems, NBS sells systems just to run your pool or submersible pumps for small ag use.
The cost of solar panels and their reliability have improved since the 1980s.  In 1984 solar thermal electric power facilities generated power at a cost of more than 26 cents per kW.  Now that cost has dropped to about 5 cents per kW with more investment by companies like Kyocera and BP Arco in the industry.  BP Arco makes solar panels in California.

In California where summer sun shines bright it does seem a bit crazy that it is pricey these months when we run short on energy.

For information about the renewable buy down program offered by the California Energy Commission, phone 800-555-7794.  To reach NBS - 747-1223 or Off Line - 877-7080.

Tulare County - The Governor’s 1.6 million flourescent light bulb giveaway will hit Tulare County in the next few days as over 7000 low income homes will get four highly efficient flourescent light bulbs delivered by the Tulare County Conservation Corps.

Governor Davis launched the “power walks” giveaway in mid May in a bid to save the 100 megawatts of power through use of the light bulbs.  The units save 75% of the power used by standard incandescent bulbs.  The compact bulbs fit into a normal light socket.  “We urge people to put them in places that are well used, like the front porch,” says a state spokesperson.  The bulbs last an average of 7 years.

Tulare County Conservation Corps. youth coordinator Brad Albert says a Corps member will visit low income homes in Visalia and Tulare and rural communities wearing name tags and dressed in their khaki pants and dark green shirts and will pass out bilingual energy saving tips and four light bulbs per household.

In Porterville the California Conservation Corps. will be handling the giveaway.

Since the bulbs are free and save the resident money on their energy bill, the giveaway is probably worth $80, says Albert.  Residents can save up to $40 a year on their electricity bill with the bulbs.

Energy conservation efforts have paid off in California where the ISO reported that Californian’s used 11% less energy this May than a year ago.

For those who don’t get a bulb given to them, the cost of the bulbs will pay off in lower electricity bills and the sense that there is something people can do right now to cut their energy bill.  Costco is selling two bulbs for $12.

Visalia - A discovery of mold problems in a Tulare-Pixley Court almost 15 months ago made a ripple of news coverage back then because it seemed a sidebar to the bigger problems and high drama at the main courthouse in Visalia.  But if the knock against the County regarding acknowledgment of the problem and clean-up of the mold itself has been slow in Visalia, a fair argument could be made that there has been a lax effort at the smaller Tulare courthouse as well.  So says attorney Alex Robertson who represents six employees (Jones vs Tulare County) who work at the Tulare court who say they’ve been injured by mold contamination.

Judge Walter Gorelick who has worked in the courthouse for 21 years, agrees that the pace of clean-up efforts has been slow.  In fact Gorelick has scolded the County in multiple page memos from his desk over concerns of mold problems at his court that date back to February 1999. That’s when administrator of the courthouse asked Resource Management/Building Maintenance clean the basement walls because “There is mold on the walls and the floor from past leaks.”

Now, 28 months later there is a professional cleaning crew carrying out what is hoped will be a definitive clean-up of the problem.

In a July 2000 memo Gorelick says the February 1999 discovery of mold did not result in any kind of County testing of the problem until March 16, 2000, more than a year later.

That test found a “very severe level” of common molds, aspergillium and penicillium, a problem the report suggested did not pose a danger to employees.  As of July 2000 the walls of the basement record room were cleaned by County maintenance personnel.  But again Gorelick scolded the County for not furnishing the court with any kind of written report that could be shared with his employees.  “They are entitled to a prompt response, not just verbally, but in writing and in concrete action,” Gorelick wrote.

He pointed out as well that a physician is advising one employee to stay away from the court building. He also noted in his January 2001 memo that one employee, who never worked at the Visalia courthouse, has tested positive for the far more serious stachybotris mold, the mold found in the Visalia courthouse.

Gorelick pointed out in the same memo that while common molds aren’t toxic, like the stachybotris, they can cause some significant medical problems and even contribute to what is termed “sick building”.

In July 2000 the County tested the building after a clean-up had been carried out.  In a January 2001 memo to court employees Judge Gorelick told employees that a month before a County representative said the result of the July 2000 tests made following the alleged clean-up “were lost” and therefore new tests were to be done.  The new report carried out by a certified hygienist said there continued to be a mold problem with levels of the same two molds 4 to 8 times higher inside the building. The report said penicillium mold can cause allergic reactions in people sensitive to molds.  Long term exposure can lead to “pulmonary and immune system hypersenitization in persons who do not show any exposure symptoms currently,” it says.

Even as the County said it would implement a new clean-up, Gorelick complained that the latest plan included only an examination of the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems.  Gorelick recommended instead that the system be cleaned “not just examined.”  That is now underway.

The reports suggests finding the source of the waterleak something that still has not been nailed down.  In addition, Gorelick asked the County to hire movers to take out basement records that may have accumulated mold over the years.  The judge said that he wanted to hire an independent hygienist to get their own reading.  In an April 2001 report two hygienists concluded that there was no “need to relocate employees at this time.”

As in the case at the main County building, Gorelick has complained that poor building maintenance practices may be a factor in the long term problem.  The temperature in the Tulare building is way too hot or too cold, he says with one employee telling Gorelick that it was 59 degrees in the courtroom last January.

Looking back Gorelick suggests the County erred when they “sent maintenance personnel to clean the place up instead of a professional contractor who specialized in mold clean-up.”  But it took Gorelick writing lots of letters and talking to county officials to get the work started only in recent weeks.

“After they said they cleaned it up last year another company came in and took samples and still found mold,” says Gorelick.  The worst mold problem is in the basement of the courthouse where records are kept.

As a result they sealed off the basement records room even though Robertson says employees were allowed to go down there.  “They had to throw away lots of records because they were contaminated,” claims Robertson.
Meanwhile, Judge Elisabeth Krant who has sued the county over a lack of notification over the mold problem at the Visalia Courthouse is now back to work in recent weeks filling in at Porterville while the mold clean-up in Tulare is completed.  Krant visited the Tulare courthouse and saw the mold on the walls and asked presiding judge O’Hara to be allowed to serve in Porterville until the problem was abated in Tulare.

Krant was off work for almost a year before she felt well enough to go back to the bench in recent weeks.
Now that the clean-up is underway, Robertson says his law firm was allowed to take mold samples in the building for evidence as they have been in the Visalia case.

Robertson claims the county “sat on this for more than a year” before the real clean-up began a few days ago.  Robertson says he believes the courthouse in Tulare should be closed while clean-up goes on.  But Gorelick says experts he relies on say the place is “a safe working environment” and that he is “pleased the county is now taking action.”

While the Tulare County court mold cases now number four, the largest case remains the Visalia courthouse where almost 200 employees have joined in the lawsuit.  The cases are in the discovery stage and not likely to go to trial for more than a year.  Krant’s trial date is the only case set for September 16, 2002.  Attorney for plaintiffs, Robertson says settlement efforts will happen long before then. 

The strong value of the US dollar compared to other currency is hurting farmers on two fronts.  First we’re getting dumped on by foreign countries who are finding it cheaper to sell their products here even as US products are more expensive in US export countries like the European Union.  “EU countries subsidize their crops to protect their farmers,” says Manual Cunha of Fresno based Nisei Farmers League.  But in the meantime they are selling produce here “cheaper than we can produce it here,” he says.

“If I were to going to ask President Bush one question,” says CALCOT VP Jarral Neeper, “I’d ask him what’s up with this strong dollar?”  Bush was in California this past week.  The high value of the dollar makes US exports more expensive in foreign countries even as US consumers enjoy cheaper imports and travel agents can brag about cheaper vacations overseas.

Cotton farmers are already hard pressed this year with record low world prices for cotton in the 40 cent range meaning that most farmers will have to depend on the government for a subsidy payment again this year to stay afloat.  Add the effect of high dollar amount, “We haven’t seen prices like this since 1986,” says Gene Lundquist of CALCOT.  “We export 85% of our cotton so the value of the dollar really makes a difference,” says Jarral Neeper.

Right now the value of the dollar vs the Euro has been heading higher since the first of the year nearing an all time level.  The value of the dollar to yen has been going up as well for most of the past two years.  The dollar is now 15 to 20% higher than a year ago using the two currencies.  Recently Bush’s treasury secretary Paul O’Neil has suggested he favors a strong dollar policy.

While the average person might think a strong dollar is good and a weak dollar is something to be avoided, the idea is misleading.  The net effect is that the high dollar reduces US exports - in the end hurting jobs of those making these goods consumed by overseas consumers. Helping to increase the dollar’s value is demand by foreigners to invest in the US economy including the US debt and credit market.  Increase flow of money into our debt market helps keep our interest rates low.

Some have suggested that the US maintains the high rate to allow foreign countries to sell the only thing they have - farm products - in order to earn cash to buy our high tech products - a policy that doesn’t help US farmers however.  The concerted policy to keep the value of the dollar high has led to a widening trade gap on all products with other countries.

Other farm exports have been hurt by a surging dollar.  Wine exports were up 3% last year but profits was not according to the Wine Institute, an industry trade organization.  US wine competes against Austria, France, Italy and Chile who all enjoy weaker currencies now.  A few years ago the Austrian dollar was worth 60 cents compared to the US dollar, now it is about 49 cents, making Austrian wine exports cheaper.

“What’s been hurting all crops is the strong value of the dollar,” says Westlake Farms owner Cecil Howe whose company this season laid off much of their workforce and idled 15,000 acres of land.  “I believe there should be mechanisms” that take the currency fluctuation as factor out of the picture, believes Howe.  Despite high demand for cotton this year there is surplus in the US right now.

Cunha says his focus is on the net effect on farmers.  “If the economic policy in effect makes it so American farmers can’t compete we need to change the policy,” he says.  Cunha says foreign countries continue to dump their produce in the US market from Argentine oranges to Turkish apricots and Chinese garlic forcing California farmers out of business.  “We need to talk about fair trade, not free trade,” he says.

He says the surge in foreign produce coming into the US is being fueled by US buyers - large supermarket and food service concerns.  “They’re like a cartel with only 20 buyers deciding prices,” says Cunha who looks forward to a USDA report to be released on conditions in the US supermarket industry.

CALCOT’s Neeper says the other thing he’d tell Bush, “California farmers need a 300 mile extension cord.” 

San Joaquin Valley - Westlands Water District has sent a letter to the state Water Resources Control Board this week suspending their application to receive San Joaquin River water.  The move comes as the water district prepares negotiations with US Dept. of Interior over retiring up to 200,000 acres of farmland, according to general manager Tom Birmingham.

The suspension request would remove one major obstacle to the retirement plan since widespread support of the Dept. of Interior plan would be needed.  Westlands move to grab water from the San Joaquin River which is fully subscribed now angered eastside water districts and cities and divided the farm community in the state.

With the letter Westlands begins a step by step process as part of an environmental impact study of the proposed land retirement.  Last week the district selected a consultant that will soon bring a study of so-called third party impacts of any such long term land idling.  The third parties include suppliers, workers, local business and communities who depend on the farm dollars that the land produces.  The study could take six months, suggests Birmingham.

Adding another 40,000 acres expected to be retired in separate court cases, the land to be fallowed could amount to over 40% of farmland in Westlands west of Fresno.

Birmingham said that a full EIR on environmental impacts might include the effect on Valley air of not planting miles and miles of farmland raising the specter of severe dust storms on the westside - an area already prone to blowing winds.

The planned idling of the lands comes as Westlands received about 50% of their normal surface water supply this farm year and low commodity prices - particularly cotton - and the high energy and pumping cost compounded what may be a tough year for all farmers and even tougher in the westside water district.  Even without a formal retirement plan at least 100,000 acres of the normal 550,000 acre district remains unplanted this year according to Birmingham.
“Some of the water we bought this year is very expensive,” says Francis Squire, district spokesperson.  The district bought Sacramento Valley water at $75 an acre ft. but cost them another $75 an acre ft. to pump it down to the district.  “Farmers can’t irrigate anything but very high value crops with water that costs that much.”

To make matters worse in the valley cotton belt, as much as 25% of valley cotton fields had to be replanted this year because of rough April weather.  Because of the replanting “right now we have lots of small size cotton plants,” says Squire.

Westland farmers aren’t the only ones cutting back.

Across the entire San Joaquin Valley reducing crop production is the order of the day - pulling trees and vines and sometimes whole orchards, leaving ground fallow as did Westlake farms this year and gearing production down to a level where those farmers left standing can make some money.  In the California egg business it’s the same story.  There are one million fewer hens laying eggs in the Golden State than just one year before and the state’s egg farmers are getting better returns - about 40 cents a dozen on large size eggs.

“Cotton is no longer King and may never be again,” says farmer Tony Oliveira who is also a Kings County Supervisor.  “With prices like they are I don’t why anyone is growing cotton this year,” he says.  The answer - what else are they going to grow?

The cotton industry is watching closely to see just how much alcala and Pima cotton is grown in a year when the price on the world market is in the low 40 cents - at least 20 cents below the cost of production.  The westside has been home to a large field crop acreage especially cotton.  But the days of long term success in growing cotton may be numbered as witnessed by the state’s largest cotton farmer JG Boswell attempting to move into the dairy farm business and now into vegetables - they just opened a new onion packing facility in Corcoran.  Of course we know their dairy initiative didn’t work as planned, but like neighbor Westlake Farms, who idled 15,000 cotton acres this season, the world’s biggest farmer is looking at other options besides cotton.

Cotton is the mainstay of Tulare Irrigation District who has been squeezed in recent years by high water costs and low cotton returns.  Because of the squeeze, we all remember what TID attempted to get into - buying and selling water by lining their canal - again a project that did not work out.  Still the motivation to do something about their profit squeeze can be seen in efforts - even desperate efforts - like this.

The official estimate of just how much cotton is being grown this year won’t come out until later in June when the CDFA releases their report.  But California Cotton Gin Association general manager Earl Williams told the Voice he expects about 600,000 acres of upland and 190,000 to 215,000 acres of Pima.  That would put total acreage at about 800,000 acres - well below earlier estimates that the valley would grow 1.1 million acres.  Production in 2000 in the valley was almost 100,000 acres more last year.

Westside farmers have tougher landscape to grow crops in.  In general the climate is harder, days hotter and windier, soil not as well watered - more hardpan and clay than the eastside delta region where trees and vineyards thrive and the fields have historically been planted to permanent crops instead of annual field crops.

Now to make matters worse, lots of acreage has a perched water table where brackish water is standing at or near the root zone forcing extraordinary efforts to get plants to grow.  The salty water limits the selection of plants you can grow.

The eastside has smaller towns, smaller farmsteads and a stock of suppliers that the westside - much of which was an old lakebed where even a single tree refuses to grow -  just doesn’t have. The famous 1940s sociological study demonstrated the small farms of the eastside dotted with small towns and lots of churches compared to places like Mendota and  Kettleman City with no middle class and fewer local voluntary institutions.  The upshot is that it is harder to do almost anything on the westside of the valley except get to the Coast sooner.

In the case of Westlands, the district has been plagued with less of its own natural water supply, depending on government largess to bring in imported water - suffering a drainage problem on much of its land with big salt buildup over the years.  On top of that water runoff from the westside hills brought in toxic amounts of selenium that ended in drain water poisoning wildlife.

The proposed retirement saves water that doesn’t have to be delivered from the Delta helping to try to balance the state water use between ag, urban and environmental interests.

Further south, Westlake Farms owner Cecil Howe says the company will continue to look for other options to grow crops on after deciding to plant nothing on some 15,000 acres this year.  The company is auctioning its truck fleet this week but Howe says the action is mostly a part of the normal turnover in his truck fleet - not a sign the company is throwing in the towel.

“We can grow winter wheat” this year and perhaps hay.  “We can’t grow corn silage because it’s too far to haul to the dairies,” he says.  Speculation has it that Howe may be thinking about bringing in dairies as Boswell tried and Howe says that “we’re giving that serious discussion.”  But that would have to wait until the stand-off over dairy permits in the central valley is over having been challenged by a San Francisco environmental group.

Is it tougher for westside growers?  “Eastside, westside, northside, southside, it’s all tough for farmers this year,” answers Howe.

Not that the eastside of the valley has been any kind of picnic lately.  In the raisin industry long time raisin farmers around Fresno are depressed over low prices and a surplus of raisins despite the fact many participated in a program to pull vines.  A large number of farms are for sale.

In the orange business the value of citrus orchards are said to have declined.  In a recent report released by a state farm manager and appraisal organization the report suggested that citrus in southern Tulare County has fallen from about $10,000 per acre in 1995 to about $6,500 in 2000.  No word if tristeza virus that stunts tree growth in some orchards has a role to play in the decline in values.  Two tough years in the orange business have hurt the citrus business.

Last month Westland’s Birmingham traveled to Visalia to meet with rival Friant Water Users board of directors who get their water from the San Joaquin River as well.  FWU felt threatened understandably by Westland’s threat to take what amounts to the entire capacity of Millerton Lake that supplies the eastside water now.
Birmingham held out an olive branch suggesting they would, in fact, offer such a suspension.  FWU general manager Dick Moss urged Birmingham to completely withdraw the application and said the members felt Westlands was saying the right things but that “talk is cheap.”  Moss says the way to help central valley farmers is to “develop more storage.”  He is bouyed by congressional legislation that is being supported to fund a study of additional storage on the San Joaquin River and Friant Kern canal for water storage to be completed by 2005.  “What we will have to look at is the cost benefits of additional storage locations,” he says.