Tag Archives: Solar energy

AMPORTS, Benicia City Council, City of Benicia, Port of Benicia

Benicia has a rare deep water port. Here’s what it would take to fix it

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: THE BENICIA BRIDGE
The following excellent reporting comes from Benicia’s newest award-winning journalism duo, Monica Vaughan and Laura López González. Their online publication is The Benicia Bridge. Learn more and subscribe to the newsletter here. Note that the story below is a highly important delvelopment for Benicia – first hand reporting on current City Council business, missing since the departure of the Benicia Herald’s Donna Beth Weilenman in 2015! – Roger Straw
Port of Benicia (Adobe Stock image)

City Council receives 43-page report, ‘Port of Benicia – Facilities and Infrastructure Modernization Plan’

By Monica Vaughan, The Benicia Bridge, April  10, 2026

Benicia City Council learned about improvements needed to maintain the Port of Benicia, as well as potential work that could attract more seafaring customers – to the cost of $700 million.

Background: The City of Benicia received a $750,000 grant to develop a Port of Benicia Facilities and Infrastructure Modernization Plan. The consultant doing the work, GHD, presented parts of the plan to councilmembers at a city council meeting Tuesday. The grant came from regional government agencies, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the Association of Bay Area Governments.

The main takeaways: The port and surrounding area need work to maintain operations into the near future, like structural improvements to the pier, stormwater infrastructure, and nearby roads and intersections used by truck traffic related to port activities.

Long-term work is needed to build up the seawall to protect against sea-level rise. And, there are opportunities to expand the pier to allow for additional moorings.

The total cost of all projects reviewed is around $700 million. The council may consider going after grants to help tackle some or all or none of the projects suggested.

Council members seemed dubious about investments, given that the port is privately owned and operated by AMPORTS. As Councilmember Trevor Macenski put it, “Would you spend $700 million on capital projects supporting an industry that doesn’t significantly benefit the city?”

Councilmember Kari Birdseye noted that AMPORTS is a big company in our community, but urged that work moving forward, especially grant opportunities, “has to benefit the larger community and not just one company in our city.”

The consultant suggested the city consider the benefits of a public/private partnership, and noted that other cities work hard to attract a company like AMPORTS to invest in infrastructure that could bring additional industry and revenue to the area.

“At least you have a partner with a revenue stream,” Vanderbeek said.

The reports provided, however, do not include market research or outreach to other potential customers who could bring business to the port.

Want to read more about it?

Vallejo Sun wrote a story: Benicia mulls $700M project to address sea level rise, expand and modernize port

Story by Monica Vaughan of The Benicia Bridge.
Subscribe to the Bridge newsletter here.
Reach out to the Benicia Bridge via their About page.

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Benicia City Council, City of Benicia, Solar energy

Benicia’s solar panels are broken. The fix is $480k

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: THE BENICIA BRIDGE
The following excellent reporting comes from Benicia’s newest award-winning journalism duo, Monica Vaughan and Laura López González. Their online publication is The Benicia Bridge. Learn more and subscribe to the newsletter here. Note that the story below is a highly important delvelopment for Benicia – first hand reporting on current City Council business, missing since the departure of the Benicia Herald’s Donna Beth Weilenman in 2015! – Roger Straw
A solar array by James Lemos pool provides shade and not much else until the system gets fixed. The City of Benicia owns 10 solar arrays that have fallen into disrepair. Photo by Monica Vaughan.

After “years of disrepair,” the City Council on Tuesday…

By Monica Vaughan, The Benicia Bridge, April  10, 2026

After “years of disrepair,” the City Council on Tuesday approved spending up to $1.6 million to fix and maintain the city’s aging solar panels for the next five years. There’s a caveat.

Background: The city has 10 solar arrays installed about 15 years ago to power a portion of city operations. Parts of the system have been broken for years, according to City Manager Mario Giuliani. The system of panels next to James Lemos Swim Center is completely down, for example. The only good they provide is shade until they’re fixed.

Giuliani stressed the need to get these fixed ASAP, saying  “we’re losing money just from the four sites that are off.” Together, the system produces about $770,000 worth of electricity a year.

“By the way,” Giuliani said, City Hall, the Clock Tower and the Police Department building are on collateral for the loan to cover the cost of construction of the arrays back in 2011, which the city continues to pay off every year.

The details: Council members approved a five-year contract with Opterra Energy Services to fix and maintain the city’s 10 solar panel systems. The first year’s work for one-time repairs and upgrades to get the system operating again will cost $480,000. The remaining expenses are for annual maintenance and additional services, if needed. The original contract was for $1.6 million, but the council voted to send it back to the company with edits to reduce costs.

Points of discussion:

  • Councilmember Lionel Largeosparda worked to cut costs, earning him the title “our contract nerd,” by Mayor Steve Young. The nerd successfully argued that some of the built-in annual markups in the contract were too high, like a 15% markup on materials. He admitted to “splitting hairs and nitpicking.”Ultimately the council agreed with him on those points and they voted to empower the city manager to make those requests to the company and get the deal done. He also wanted to reduce a $150,000-per-year set-aside that allows staff to approve repairs without needing to return to council for approval.Giuliani fought back.

“The only reason I’m having this pushback is because, again, we’re trying to solve something that has been broken for years, and this is a vehicle to do that, so we don’t repeat the mistake of letting something get in such disrepair that it’s going to cost $480,000 in year one,” Giuliani said.

  • Mayor Steve Young questioned the bid process used to pick the contractor. Instead of publishing a “request for proposals” (RFP for bureaucrats in the know), the city used a third-party vendor, Omnia Partners, that released an RFP and did vetting in 2023. Kelly Ferguson with Opterra Energy made the case in person. “We are uniquely qualified for this contract because, actually, our predecessor company built the systems, and we have stockpiles of equipment, which obviously, now you can’t get on the market.”

Story by Monica Vaughan of The Benicia Bridge.
Subscribe to the Bridge newsletter here.
Reach out to the Benicia Bridge via their About page.

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Benicia, Climate Change, Global warming, Solar energy

These three new Jumping Into Solutions podcast episodes will help you go electric

BenIndy highly recommends ‘Jumping Into Solutions’

By Pat Toth-Smith, November 7, 2023

 I am pleased to announce the locally produced You Tube and Spotify podcast channel, “Jumping into Solutions” has three new episodes to help you GO ELECTRIC in your home. We feature local Benicians’ who have started on their own paths of reducing their carbon footprint by making their homes as energy efficient as possible. The episodes feature local co-hosts Kathy Kerridge and me, Pat Toth-Smith, neighbors and experts in their fields who answer complicated questions like, how does the technology work and can I afford it?

Switch Is On to Electric Heat Pumps | EP. 2

Here’s everything that you need to know about switching to the energy-efficient, electric water heater pumps and electric home heating/cooling pumps. This episode clears up the questions of how new electric heat pumps work, does it cost a lot of money to install, and can I remove my gas system after installing them?

 

BENEFITS of Home Solar Panels & Solar Battery Storage | EP. 3

This episode talks about the benefits of going solar at a time when reducing our carbon footprint is vital; it answers questions about affordability, rebates, how solar works with your energy provider, solar battery storage functions and how to use your battery in the event of a power outage? And discussions about the new PG&E changes involving NEM 2 and NEM 3.

 

Switch to Electric Induction Stoves from Gas Stoves | EP. 4

 Did you know, induction electric stoves are more energy efficient than gas and electric stoves and can boil water or heat up food faster than both. They also are healthier than gas stoves because gas leaks can occur when idle and/or outgassing when in use. Many adverse health effects are related to this outgassing of toxic gasses that includes Benzene, Carbon Dioxide and also PM2.5, which can cause resp illnesses and other more serious diseases. Induction electric stoves are safer than gas or electric because energy is transferred to the pot by an electromagnetic field, and the stove turns off after the pot is removed. It answers questions like: How does induction work? What toxic, green-house gasses are released? Are there rebates?

For more information go to https://www.jumpingintosolutions.com/

Thank you, Pat Toth-Smith founder, and Benicia Resident

Clean energy, Energy grid, Energy storage, Keeping Watch on Earth News, Solar energy, Wind energy

Breakthrough for clean energy storage: massive new battery farm coming to California this decade

This Compressed Air Grid ‘Battery’ Is an Energy Storage Game Changer

Pumped hydropower is great. This method might be even better.
Popular Mechanics, by Caroline Delbert, May 3, 2021
hydrostor storage facility
Hydrostor storage facility
  • World-record compressed air energy storage is coming to California this decade.
  • Using air reduces overhead and materials costs compared with hydrogen storage.
  • Compressed air is stored during surplus times and fed back during peak usage.

Two new compressed air storage plants will soon rival the world’s largest non-hydroelectric facilities and hold up to 10 gigawatt hours of energy. But what is advanced compressed air energy storage (A-CAES), exactly, and why is the method about to have a moment?

Compressed air is part of a growingly familiar kind of energy storage: grid-stabilizing batteries. Like Elon Musk’s battery farm in Australia and other energy overflow storage facilities, the goal of a compressed air facility is to take extra energy from times of surplus and feed it back into the grid during peak usage.

Here’s how the A-CAES technology works: Extra energy from the grid runs an air compressor, and the compressed air is stored in the plant. Later, when energy is needed, the compressed air then runs a power-generating turbine. The facility also stores heat from the air to help smooth the turbine process later on.

While the efficiency of similar systems has hovered around 40 to 50 percent, the new system from Hydrostor, a major global leader in building hydroelectric storage, reportedly reaches 60 percent, according to Quartz.

Hydostor will store compressed air in a reservoir that’s partly filled with water to balance out the pressure. The whole system will hold up to 12 hours of energy for the grids where the two plants are planned. (The first plant will be built in Rosamond, California, while the second location is to be determined.)

hydrostor energy storage facility
Hydrostor energy storage facility

Why branch out from hydrogen to compressed air? While hydro storage is a great part of the global energy scene, storing massive amounts of water requires a ton of infrastructure that Hydrostor says uses a lot of energy it’s ultimately trying to save. That makes intuitive sense if you think about the relative force of water compared with even heavily pressurized air.

New Atlas elaborates:

“Pumped hydro accounts for around 95 percent of the world’s grid energy storage and gigawatt-capacity plants have been in operation since the 1980s. The problem is that you need a specific type of location and a staggering amount of concrete to build a pumped hydro plant, which works against the goal of reaching net zero. Rotting vegetation trapped in dams also contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, the biggest mega-batteries built so far are only in the 200 MW/MWh range, though installations bigger than 1 GW are planned.

Recharge reports that companies have built smaller existing CAES facilities over naturally occurring salt caverns. In contrast, Hydrostor will be digging new caverns to use for its larger facilities in California, just as engineers are constructing huge salt caves in Utah to store hydrogen.

The first of Hydrostor’s two plants is set to open in 2026, and the company says its system will last for about 50 years—making it a lot longer-lived than almost any energy storage of its kind. The near future of energy is likely made of a dozen different solutions that are all suited to different environments and situations, so adding compressed air to the portfolio simply makes sense.