Implementing Solar PV and Wind Energy for Alpine Meadows Ski Resort

When looking at different forms of rural electrification, powering a ski resort with solar and wind power stood out.  Due to many factors that we will explore, ski resorts are very viable sites for solar and wind installations.  Looking at many factors of specific resorts, Alpine became a strong site for our project and installation development was based here.  Once we figured out the scale of our project, economics, funding, and policy had to come in to play to fully develop our project proposal.

Due to the high elevations and lower temperatures, the conditions surrounding ski resorts can be very conducive to solar panels.  Not only this, but the reflectivity of the snow during the winter months can help to maximize the systems productivity.   Snow also aids in cleaning panels as long as you have black panels like SunPower’s installed at a 65° angle which will help the snow to melt faster and slide off, wiping off any residue in the process.  In addition to the benefits ski resorts can pose for solar installations, there are also added factors that can make wind turbine installations successful.   Due to high wind speeds at the top of, often barren, peaks, wind turbines often have a solid staple for energy generation.  While these factors are all benefits for renewable energy installations, there may be concern for environmental impacts of these installations, but due to the fact that trails are already cut and cleared for grooming and maintenance, there is minimal impact in installation, and the areas in which systems would be installed are at high enough altitudes and on existing infrastructure that there would be little to no wildlife affected.

Research also showed that there are already ski resorts with solar and wind installations being used towards energy usage of lifts.   Using some of these main resorts as a basis for our installations, we looked at types of systems and how they were implemented to get ideas.   For our wind power we looked at Park City Mountain Resort; our solar installations were based off of Berkshire East Ski Area, a Swiss ski resort in Tenna, and other basic installations; and our energy storage came from a battery that PG&E has recently installed.

At Park City Mountain Resort, they have a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine installed.  This Falcon 12 kW vertical axis wind turbine would become the basis for our wind power installations.  For our solar installations, we used basic black panels like SunPower’s for rooftop installations and for our solar covered parking structures.  Berkshire East Ski Area uses a dual-axis AllSun Trackers, manufactured by AllEarth Renewables in Vermont, which are controlled via GPS and wireless technology. The Swiss ski resort in Tenna, however, offers a new type of technology.  Their solar system features wing-like panels that are installed along existing lift-lines.  These panels should be on south-facing slopes, and can be installed on most lift-lines with minimal impact.  Finally, our energy storage comes from the NGK 2000 kW Sodium Sulfur Battery that PG&E has recently installed to store enough energy to power more than 1500 homes.  While this new technology offered little in ways of numbers for pricing or actual energy storage, the research that PG&E has done gave us a basis for type and location of our energy storage.

Once the benefits of siting at a ski resort were found, it was matter of figuring out what resort to use as a basis for this installation.   Looking at resorts around the Tahoe Basin for inspiration, we chose to implement our plan at Alpine Meadows ski resort due to Charlotte’s background knowledge of the mountain and the area, and the fact that it is a seasonal mountain meaning that it is only open six months out of the year.   This means that the remaining 6 months that the mountain is closed can be used to continue to produce energy but instead of using it to power lifts and lodges, the energy can be sold back to the utility through net metering.

Net metering is a viable option rather than using the sodium battery, this creates rebate programs allowing utilities to purchase Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) after a 12 month period, and allowing to use the transmission infrastructure of Liberty Utilities for energy storage. A REC is about 1,000 kWh or 1 MWh, priced at about $10/MWh and may bump up to about $30/MWh. The total generation is about 7.9 MWh and usage is 6.7 MWh so there is a 1.2 MWh surplus of energy. After the system is gone through a year of consistent power output/input, Liberty Utilities can produce an energy balance for Alpine for them to sell their excess energy annually. Alpine will sell more RECs in the summer than any other months, based on closure of the resort. The Renewable Portfolio Standard also plays a factor, because it is requiring utilities, to purchase 33% renewables, by purchasing energy from Alpine, Liberty Utilities is creating carbon savings for energy sucks like lift rides and snow makers. Alpine and Liberty would have to agree to a PPA before implementing the solar panels.

There is a solar construction permitting standard that requires a fee for permits. This fee is not based on the overall cost of the PV system, but separately identifies every fee charged on the invoice. $1000 for up to 50kW, every  kW after is charged $7 and after 250 kW its $5 for every kW after that point. The higher the kilowatts permitted the cheaper it becomes per unit. This will definitely be a good thing to know when we are about to pay around $40,000 just for permitting the panels which is not bad at all, if every 50 kW was $1000 it would be around $160,000, based off the 7.9 MWh generation number. With these permit standards we can permit these solar panels very cheaply.

Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) Grants are grants for renewable energy, that must be between $2,500 and $500,000 (up to 25% of eligible project costs). These grants are limited to 25% of a proposed project's cost, and a loan guarantee may not exceed $25 million. The combined amount of a grant and loan guarantee must be at least $5,000 (with the grant portion at least $1,500) and may not exceed 75% of the project’s cost. Another financing solution is the mPower Placer is based off the financing model called Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE). The financed amount is amortized and the annual amount due is added to your property tax bill each year until paid in full. If the property is sold the equipment and the unpaid amount stay with the property.

A new policy that could be conceived for this project is called the Snow Shine policy, where there is an abundance of snow for more than 3 months out of the year, funding and siting renewable projects in rural mountain areas, are financed by a statewide tax for public utilities to create their own dependence in these areas. A distributed generation system in rural mountainous areas helps establish stability, because when there is snow you can be trapped, so a reliance on your own power creates safety in these areas. The tax money accrued for this policy will pay for these newly proposed projects and in return the new renewable projects will incorporate themselves into the distributed generation system creating a web of energy in these areas and giving back to the grid, when necessary. Implementing solar can not only be done by politics but certain groups can help fund a project like this as well, or increase awareness of environmental sustainability. If this becomes real and actually happens, it can provide a model for PV construction, and provide new guidelines for categorizing new policy proposals, which in turn hopefully will help progress environmental innovation.

Mentioned earlier, the Ski Area Citizen’s Coalition provides grades for ski resorts in the western US on their environmental policies and management. This really benefits the resort, because Alpine has that A grade so people will be more inclined to come here based off their environmental stewardship. The Truckee Trails Foundation's goal is to preserve and protect important historic, recreational, and scenic open spaces in the greater Truckee region. If a Voluntary Environmental Program was implemented in this region, it would motivate people to attach, educate, orient value, for current and future inhabitants of the Alpine Meadows area. Currently Alpine promotes carpooling, they have a rideshare program that encourages skiers and snowboarders to car pool called Zimride. Not only does Alpine Meadows practice environmental stewardship but they give back to the community.

Alpine Meadows and Squaw Valley support their community through charitable donations. Sierra Search and Avalanche Center, Tahoe Fund, Tahoe Forest Hospital Cancer Center, Truckee Community Christmas, Truckee River Watershed Council, and Truckee Tahoe Community Foundation are the major charities donated to.

Alpine Meadows is also an active supporter of environmental consciousness, being graded by the Ski Areas Citizen Coalition for their efforts, and being voted one of the greenest mountains in the Tahoe Basin. Alpine Meadows Ski Area, receives an A overall at 87.6.%. Alpine got an A for habitat protection, an A for protecting watersheds, a C for addressing global climate change, and an A for environmental policies and practice on their report card. Alpine Meadows and Squaw achieved the Tree Hugger award for Best Ski Resort, through the Ski Areas Citizen Coalition. Squaw Valley is a leader in environmental policy and practises and it is now integrated in their core values.

Alpine Meadows Ski Resort is located in California’s Tahoe Basin among the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  The base elevation of this resort is 6,385’ at Base Lodge, and it’s summit elevations range from 8,289’ at Scott Peak up to 8,637’ at Ward Peak.  The average temperature in this area is 42.5°F, and due to average snowfall, on average the resort is open from November through April, and closed May through October.  The resort features thirteen lifts, two with southern exposure, ten on the north-facing slope of the mountain, and one small poma lift surrounded by trees.  These main statistics gave us a basis for implementing solar and wind installations.

Once we figured out what types of systems to use and what resort to implement them at, we needed to figure out specific locations where these systems could be installed.   This meant that we needed to do some site analysis to figure out where lifts, buildings, and parking lots were located; where the sun exposure would be best; where wind would be most steady; where there would be enough open land for solar trackers; and where avalanche paths are to avoid losing any installations.  Looking at a site map of the area, we found that there are eight main buildings for rooftop installations, along with twenty-two lift operation buildings at the top and bottoms of lifts where rooftop solar could also be installed.   Only two of our lifts are south-facing which meant that these were the only lifts to feature the wing-like panels, and at Scott Peak from the top of the Scott chair over to the Lakeview chair, there is a large area of open land along the crest where our Solar Trackers could be installed.  After finding these areas that would be best suited for our solar installations, we looked at wind speeds to find a strong area for our wind turbines. 

Ward Peak is known for its incredibly high wind speeds often reaching mid 100s and so we looked along this ridgeline to see if installation here would be possible.  Just past the top of the Summit chair towards high traverse, there are many cell and radio towers, which lead us to believe that speeds would not be to strong for an installation to survive.  However, this area gave little room for the scale of the installation we were looking for, so we looked further down the ridgeline towards Estelle and found a large area where wind turbines could be installed with the advantage of high wind speeds and solid ground to build.

We then looked to see what areas if any would be affected by avalanche paths, especially given the large snow load that this mountain receives.  Looking at two of the main paths leading down the north face of the mountain from Estelle and Beaver Bowls down towards the main parking lot at the base lodge, we knew that we would need to limit our solar parking structures to the east side of the parking lot.

Looking at the buildings, lines, and land that these analyses gave us, we calculated estimates for square footage, and from here we calculated how many panels and turbines could be installed in each area. Our black SunPower panels installed at 65° angles for our rooftop installations would feature 3560 panels on the Main Lodge, 3000 panels in parking lot structures over the Subway parking lot, 300 panels on the adaptive ski school, 400 panels on the air pump station, 750 on the ski patrol building, and 2980 on the grooming building.  This calculates to 10,990 at base elevation alone.  Moving up the north-face of the mountain, we have 410 panels on the Chalet, 33 panels on the Kangaroo chair, 150 panels on the patrol office, 65 panels on the Subway lift, 115 panels on the Meadow chair, 65 panels on Hot Wheels, 215 panels on Round House, 500 panels on Summit, 82 panels on Scott, 50 panels on yellow, 280 panels on Alpine Bowl. Moving to the south-face of the resort, we have 64 panels on the Lakeview chair, 200 panels on Sherwood, and 65 rooftop panels on the Sherwood restroom building. This totals in 12,955 for the entire north-face of the resort, 329 panels on the south-face, and a grand total of 13,284 in rooftop solar panels.  Along with these rooftop installations, we have the wing-like panels installed on the South-face of the resort with 985 panels along the Lakeview lift, and 1066 panels along the Sherwood lift, with a grand total of 2051 wing-like panels installed.  We then calculated the square footage of the area for Solar tracker installations which totaled in enough room for 140 dual-axis AllSun Trackers, which have 20 panels each, and the total area available for wind turbines gave us 25 Falcon 12 kW vertical axis wind turbines.

Finally, we looked at where our NGK 2000 kW Sodium Sulfur Battery could be located.   Given our largest installations would be around the base lodge in rooftop installations, it made sense to install our energy storage by the air pump storage building, used for snow making.  We observed that due to lengths of transmission lines to this battery, energy from installations at our peaks and southern slopes might be lost in transmission, so another battery could be installed on Ward Peak at the patrol office if needed.

Annotated Bibliography 

• "5 Eco Ski Resorts." Greenlandkidcom. Web. 1 Oct. 2013.

<http://www.greenlandkid.com/5-eco-ski-resorts/>.

• "About the California Solar Initiative (CSI) - Go Solar California." About the California Solar Initiative (CSI) - Go Solar California. Web. 1 Oct. 2013.

<http://www.gosolarcalifornia.ca.gov/about/csi.php>.

The California Solar Initiative is meant as a rebate program to fund solar in residential and commercial settings.  “The CSI program has a total budget of $2.167 billion between 2007 and 2016 and a goal to install approximately 1,940 MW of new solar generation capacity. The CSI-Thermal portion of the program has a total budget of $250 million between 2010 and 2017, and a goal to install 200,000 new solar hot water systems. The CSI program is funded by electric ratepayers and the CSI-Thermal portion of the program is funded by gas ratepayers. The CSI program is overseen by the California Public Utilities Commission and rebates are offered through the Program Administrators”(GoSolar).

• Barry , Friedman , and Bird Lori. NREL, "Energy Savings Certificate Markets: Opportunities and Implementation Barriers.

<http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy09osti/45970.pdf.>

Energy savings certificate (ESC) is a tradable instrument and generated from various energy saving practices such as solar panel, heating, and building management system. The benefit of ESC is that the market for ESC is growing, so that there is potential to reduce duration of energy payback time.

• Detering, Paul (2013). Unbundled CA REC Market Could Help More Solar Projects Pencil Out.

<http://www.tiogaenergy.com/industry-news/unbundled-ca-rec-market-could-help-more-solar-projects-pencil-out>

• "DSIRE: Incentives/Policies by State: Federal : Incentives/Policies for Renewables & Efficiency."DSIRE: Incentives/Policies by State: Federal : Incentives/Policies for Renewables & Efficiency. Web. 1 Oct. 2013. <http://www.dsireusa.org/incentives/index.cfm?State=US>.

The Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency gives links to various financial incentives and rules, regulations, and policies. These incentives include corporate deduction, corporate depreciation, corporate exemption, corporate tax credit, the federal grant program, the federal loan program, industry recruiment and support, personal exemption, and personal tax credits.

• "Fossils & Photons - Energy and Clean Tech." Fossils Photons Energy and Clean Tech. Web. 1 Oct. 2013. <http://blog.sfgate.com/energy/2013/10/17/batteries-big-enough-for-buildings-ca-utilities-must-buy-energy-storage/>.
• Geographic, Photograph By Taylor S. Kennedy, National. "Pictures: Eight Ski Resorts That Give Green Energy a Lift." National Geographic. National Geographic Society, 06 Dec. 2011. Web. 1 Oct. 2013.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2011/12/pictures/111206-green-ski-resorts

• "Get Email Updates." Alpine Meadows. Web. 1 Oct. 2013.

<http://www.skialpine.com/mountain-facts>.

• "Go Solar California - Financing Solar Energy Systems." Go Solar California - Financing Solar Energy Systems. Web. 1 Oct. 2013.

<http://www.gosolarcalifornia.ca.gov/professionals/financing.php>.

Go Solar gives information about SOlar and Energy Efficiency Finance Programs.  These include CaliforniaFirst and Pace, Renting Solar Systems and Power Purchase Agreements, and Traditional Lending.

• Hewitt, Ben. "Skiers Love The Green." Skiing 60.3 (2007): 1E-2E. Web. 11 Nov. 2013. 

While not pertaining to solar specifically, this article looks at the move to renewables and the environmental efforts made by ski resorts recently by way of biodiesel, solar hot-water collectors, and wind turbines.

• Janke, J. R. (2010). Multicriteria GIS modeling of wind and solar farms in colorado. Renewable Energy, 35(10), 2228-2234. doi:

http://dx.doi.org.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/10.1016/j.renene.2010.03.014

The Colorado Rocky Mountain School and the Aspen Skiing Company initiated a solar project to help power ski lifts and about 20–30 homes in Vail. High GIS model scores are located at high elevated sites in the Rockies, and could be perfect for small wind farms, ideal for ski resorts or dispersed populated communities.

• Jenny , Heeter , Armstrong Philip, and Bird Lori. NREL, "Market Brief: Status of the Voluntary Renewable Energy Certificate Market ." 

<http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy12osti/56128.pdf.>

This article is about solar energy market. In winter energy generated by solar panels is used to run facilities on a ski resort but energy generated in summer will be sold to utilities and local customers. In this case they can use community solar program in which local consumer fund a solar power system. Local customers will be able to buy electricity at lower cost than that of from a grid.

• "Massachusetts Ski Resort Runs Completely on Solar & Wind." Massachusetts Ski Resort Runs Completely on Solar & Wind. Web. 1 Oct. 2013.

<http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/24817>.

“The AllSun Trackers controlled by wireless and GPS are manufactured by AllEarth Renewables in Vermont. Sustainable Energy Development Inc. of Ontario, NY developed the project, to be ready for unmoderate climates.”

• Needham, M. D., & Little, C. M. (2013). Voluntary environmental programs at an alpine ski area: Visitor perceptions, attachment, value orientations, and specialization. Tourism Management, 35(0), 70-81. doi:

http://dx.doi.org.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2012.06.001

Voluntary Environmental Programs (VEPs) motivate people to attach, educate, orient value, for current and future inhabitants of the area. Mt. Bachelor ski area in Oregon, USA, provided an onsite survey of skiers and snowboarders, about 429 of them. Only a few had heard about VEP’s, and were motivated to visit because of them, but the majority said that if VEP’s were to increase, more would be like to visit these areas, displaying a sense of biocentricity.

• "NREL: Technology Deployment - State and Local Activities." NREL: Technology Deployment - State and Local Activities. Web. 1 Oct. 2013.

<http://www.nrel.gov/tech_deployment/state_local_activities>.

The National Renewable Energy Labratory “helps states and local communities to achieve their clean energy goals by supporting renewable energy and energy-saving projects through a variety of technical assistance and technology deployment programs”(NREL.gov).

• Prakash, J., A. K. Bhargava, and S. P. Sabberwal. "Performance Of An Inexpensive Rural Solar Collector." International Journal Of Energy Research 6.1 (1982): 1. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
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<http://www.solaripedia.com/13/124/greening_our_white_ski_resorts.html>.

“Mammoth installed solar heating panels at the lift shack on top of the Thunder Bound Express lift and in other small, outlying buildings as well to generate electricity and heat (California). Solar power lighting is implemented in The Canyons resort, while also being a part of Utah Power's Blue Sky Program, which means this resort as well as Deer Valley and Park City purchase green wind power for their operations (Utah). In Tirol, Austria a ski tow is powered by a PV system entitled “Sonnenlift.” A 250 square meter solar system was installed at the The Alpenhaus Idalpe in Ischgl, which has saved over 10,000 litres of oil every year since it was installed in 2006. In Serfaus, the restaurant on Masner mountain uses a solar system for their hot water, as well as using a ventilation system to recover heat.”

• Solaripedia. Web. 1 Oct. 2013.

<http://www.solaripedia.com/files/353.pdf

“The Environmental Charter for Ski Areas, with the Natural Resources Defense Council,  adopted a policy on climate change entitled the “Keep Winter Cool”campaign in 2002, and 2003. Its goal is to raise awareness on business that relies on weather, for recreation, and how we can be aware of climate change impacts, and encourage people to take initial action. The goal is to preserve the quality of life by coming up with solutions to keep local economies, and environments healthy. Some ways to do this is by orient buildings where they can maximize the natural light potential, reducing artificial lighting, another way is to implement solar heating, and solar/pv electricity generation for general and radiant heating.”

• "Ski Area Citizens Coalition." Ski Area Citizens Coalition. Web. 1 Oct. 2013.

<http://www.skiareacitizens.com/index.php?nav=report_card2>.

• Small resorts' guide to energy. (n.d.).

<http://www.nsaa.org/media/21015/Small-resort-energy-guide.pdf>

This article discusses about the benefits of being a green resort. From economic view point investment on renewable energy facilities is important to attract skiers while they are aware of environmental problems.

• Smerecnik, Karl R., and Peter A. Andersen. "The Diffusion Of Environmental Sustainability Innovations In North American Hotels And Ski Resorts." Journal Of Sustainable Tourism 19.2 (2011): 171-196. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.

This journal looks at the types of renewables being used in hotels and ski resorts and the factors that affect their adoption.  “Results from this study revealed that the perceived simplicity of sustainability innovations and high levels of opinion leadership of hotels/resorts were most strongly associated with the adoption of sustainability innovations”(Smerecnik).

• "State PUC's Proposal for Utilities to Store Energy." SFGate. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Oct. 2013.

<http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/State-PUC-s-proposal-for-utilities-to-store-energy-4815079.php>.

• Stoms, D. M., Dashiell, S. L., & Davis, F. W. (2013). Siting solar energy development to minimize biological impacts. Renewable Energy, 57(0), 289-298. doi:

http://dx.doi.org.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/10.1016/j.renene.2013.01.055

Sites that are to significantly ecologically degraded, with a low value of conservation, as well as have low impacts off-site connecting to existing transmission infrastructure, display the model best of the article. Using this model is an excellent tool to agree on renewable energy analysis of site suitability, regional biodiversity, conservation planning, and will generate the least regret with dealing with permitting and assessment.

• Taylor, M. (2008). Beyond technology-push and demand-pull: Lessons from california's solar policy. Energy Economics, 30(6), 2829-2854. doi:

http://dx.doi.org.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2008.06.004

It claims that for climate policy to work, we have to observe, and promote technological evolution , while reducing greenhouse gas emissions, to levels for basic human survival as well as minimizing impacts on economics. Chronology of solar policy in California, provides a model for building and categorizing new policy, which in turn hopefully will  help progress environmental  innovation. Also needed is the improvement of interfacing between the supply and use of technology. Innovation history can be a barrier to the interfacing, because it provides data that can impede innovation.

• Tierney, S. (2011). The rural utility response to Colorado’s electricity mandates. Energy Policy, 39(11), 7217-7223. doi:

http://dx.doi.org.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2011.08.042

Colorado was the first state to pass a renewable portfolio standard at the ballot box, supported by six of the most supportive counties, all passing with ⅔ support or higher. These six counties are the home of the biggest ski resorts. These wealthier ski counties can better withstand high electric prices,  and they are dependant on tourism. Vail resorts bought REC’s to offset the carbon emissions their resort has emitted in 2006.

• U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy , "2010 Solar Technologies Market Report .

<http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy12osti/51847.pdf.>

This article is a report of solar market and looks at various aspects of solar panel. This article looks at the cost, price and performance trends which is important to find the electricity demand required by a ski resort to be a green resort. Also this article has information on maintenance cost of PV modules and different types of solar panels. Landscape of ski resorts is different from each other, so that it is important to find the best type of solar panel.

• "World's First Ski Area Fully Powered With On-Site Renewables." World's First Ski Area Fully Powered With On-Site Renewables. Web. 1 Oct. 2013. <http://www.solardaily.com/reports/Worlds_First_Ski_Area_Fully_Powered_With_On_Site_Renewables_999.html>.

“Berkshire East was the world’s first ski area to be completely powered by renewables generated on-site. The resort built a 500 kW solar tracker farm (90 dual-axis AllSun Trackers) that produces annually approximately 700,000kWh, that will be supplement a previously installed 900 kW wind turbine in 2011.”

• "XGames." X Games. Web. 1 Oct. 2013.

<http://xgames.espn.go.com/skiing/article/7575177/small-swiss-town-builds-first-kind-solar-powered-ski-lift>.

• "XGames." X Games. Web. 1 Oct. 2013.

<http://xgames.espn.go.com/snowboarding/article/8164411/ski>.

“An array of 35 solar trackers, which collectively produce 205,000 kWh per year which is around five percent of Smuggler’s Notch’s total energy usage. Park City Mountain Resort installed a Falcon 12kW wind turbine, paired with a solar panel that generates 30,000 kW of electricity annually. The resort provides a station that shows the public real time energy generation.”