California ships 'all-solar' rice to Japan
Published: Tuesday, Jun. 21, 2011 - 12:00 am | Page 5B
The California rice industry made a powerful statement recently when it shipped what's believed to be the first vessel of "all solar" farm exports from the state.
A shipment of 13,000 metric tons of California rice was loaded over a period of several days at the Port of Stockton, headed for Japan in late May and early June. Normally, this wouldn't be a big deal, said Chris Crutchfield, president and chief executive officer at American Commodity Co., since the state's growers send more than 20 vessels of rice to Japan every season.
But the cargo on the Global Arrow is the first in California, and perhaps in the world, to have 100 percent of its paddy rice processed with solar energy. The rice was dried and stored in solar-powered warehouses: Montna Farms Dryer in Dingville, and Myers & Charter Warehouse in Arbuckle.
The finished product was then milled, processed and packaged at two solar-powered rice mills, American Commodity Co. in Williams and California Family Foods in Arbuckle. Crutchfield said he's never heard of another such shipment.
Crutchfield said the shipment was coordinated to make a statement about the industry's commitment to reducing its carbon footprint and using renewable energy. The focus on lowering carbon output is usually squarely on rice growers, but rice processors also are feeling pressure to shift to alternative energy.
Crutchfield said customers worldwide are starting to demand agricultural products brought to the marketplace using less fossil fuel.
"Retailers, distributors and wholesalers, and both our domestic and international trade partners, are looking for this," he said. "Rather than look only at the producer for ways to reduce the carbon footprint, asking them to use less oil and gas during the production of the rice, we wanted to see if there was a step in between where we could make a difference."
Crutchfield said California rice dryers and millers started moving toward solar conversion about two years ago, as solar technology became more advanced and affordable. Today, there are about a dozen large, commercial drying and storage operations in the state relying partially or totally on solar energy.
American Commodity Co. and California Family Foods went solar in December. American Commodity built a 1-megawatt array on a 10.9-acre site. Crutchfield said the photovoltaic panels move 180 degrees on hydraulics to optimize sunlight collection, starting out pointing due east in the morning and facing due west by evening.
The array was installed in cooperation with Pacific Gas and Electric Co. using a cash incentive from the California Public Utilities Commission's California Solar Initiative. The array cost several million dollars, Crutchfield said, and the company is hoping for a return on its investment within four years.
"It's too early to tell what our actual cost savings are, but we're definitely seeing substantial savings," he said. "We create more energy in a day than we use, and we're putting power back in the PG&E grid."
Lynsey Paulo, a spokesperson with PG&E, said the utility is seeing an increase in interest from agricultural processing plants, especially wineries, that want to reduce carbon emissions. PG&E has incentives for business customers who install solar water heaters, and for using qualifying wind or fuel cell energy sources.
Melicia Charles, supervisor of the customer generation program for the California Public Utilities Commission, said the commission doesn't give information on incentives paid to specific businesses because of privacy issues. And the commission doesn't track projects for agriculture-related businesses.
"But there's definitely been a lot of interest and quite a few installations from the ag sector," she said.
The incentives come from a federally funded program and are part of the state's Go Solar, California campaign aiming to create 3,000 megawatts of power from solar installations by 2016. So far, the program has given out roughly $1.5 billion in incentive money to create 919 megawatts of energy.
Charles said Colusa County, primarily a rural area, has installed 3 megawatts of solar power, using almost $4 million in incentives through June 15. Another 2.1 megawatts of solar energy, using $3.5 million in incentives, are pending installation in the county.
A shipment of 13,000 metric tons of California rice was loaded over a period of several days at the Port of Stockton, headed for Japan in late May and early June. Normally, this wouldn't be a big deal, said Chris Crutchfield, president and chief executive officer at American Commodity Co., since the state's growers send more than 20 vessels of rice to Japan every season.
But the cargo on the Global Arrow is the first in California, and perhaps in the world, to have 100 percent of its paddy rice processed with solar energy. The rice was dried and stored in solar-powered warehouses: Montna Farms Dryer in Dingville, and Myers & Charter Warehouse in Arbuckle.
The finished product was then milled, processed and packaged at two solar-powered rice mills, American Commodity Co. in Williams and California Family Foods in Arbuckle. Crutchfield said he's never heard of another such shipment.
Crutchfield said the shipment was coordinated to make a statement about the industry's commitment to reducing its carbon footprint and using renewable energy. The focus on lowering carbon output is usually squarely on rice growers, but rice processors also are feeling pressure to shift to alternative energy.
Crutchfield said customers worldwide are starting to demand agricultural products brought to the marketplace using less fossil fuel.
"Retailers, distributors and wholesalers, and both our domestic and international trade partners, are looking for this," he said. "Rather than look only at the producer for ways to reduce the carbon footprint, asking them to use less oil and gas during the production of the rice, we wanted to see if there was a step in between where we could make a difference."
Crutchfield said California rice dryers and millers started moving toward solar conversion about two years ago, as solar technology became more advanced and affordable. Today, there are about a dozen large, commercial drying and storage operations in the state relying partially or totally on solar energy.
American Commodity Co. and California Family Foods went solar in December. American Commodity built a 1-megawatt array on a 10.9-acre site. Crutchfield said the photovoltaic panels move 180 degrees on hydraulics to optimize sunlight collection, starting out pointing due east in the morning and facing due west by evening.
The array was installed in cooperation with Pacific Gas and Electric Co. using a cash incentive from the California Public Utilities Commission's California Solar Initiative. The array cost several million dollars, Crutchfield said, and the company is hoping for a return on its investment within four years.
"It's too early to tell what our actual cost savings are, but we're definitely seeing substantial savings," he said. "We create more energy in a day than we use, and we're putting power back in the PG&E grid."
Lynsey Paulo, a spokesperson with PG&E, said the utility is seeing an increase in interest from agricultural processing plants, especially wineries, that want to reduce carbon emissions. PG&E has incentives for business customers who install solar water heaters, and for using qualifying wind or fuel cell energy sources.
Melicia Charles, supervisor of the customer generation program for the California Public Utilities Commission, said the commission doesn't give information on incentives paid to specific businesses because of privacy issues. And the commission doesn't track projects for agriculture-related businesses.
"But there's definitely been a lot of interest and quite a few installations from the ag sector," she said.
The incentives come from a federally funded program and are part of the state's Go Solar, California campaign aiming to create 3,000 megawatts of power from solar installations by 2016. So far, the program has given out roughly $1.5 billion in incentive money to create 919 megawatts of energy.
Charles said Colusa County, primarily a rural area, has installed 3 megawatts of solar power, using almost $4 million in incentives through June 15. Another 2.1 megawatts of solar energy, using $3.5 million in incentives, are pending installation in the county.
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