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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024
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These ‘Trees’ Are Branching Out From Providing Shade to Providing Energy

In Bob Noble’s vision, every parking lot is full of trees that provide shade and lean toward the sun, with sturdy trunks, roots that run deep and ports that recharge electric cars. Not your typical elm, the trees are mechanical constructs — Envision Solar International Inc.’s answer to how to make a parking lot useful.

Noble, the Kearny Mesa firm’s chief executive officer, developed his solar trees for the big picture and now has formed a strategic alliance with Reno Contracting, a San Diego-based company that has a history of building large commercial projects — with large parking lots.

“Reno Contracting understands sustainability and renewability, and they’ve worked on large, interesting projects throughout the Southwest, the solar belt,” Noble said. “They are eager to be involved in innovative projects and tapping into growth markets.”

Envision’s solar trees are a cluster of solar panels mounted on a trunk of steel that mimics a real tree. The kicker is the installation of charging stations for electric cars, with the excess power going back into the grid.

The trees are more than a design; they’re a kit of plug-and-play parts that spare the builders the agony of puzzling out the structure, wiring, assembly and power conversion with each new project. Most of Envision’s products follow the plug-and-play model, recognizing that there’s plenty of sun and retrofitting is costly.

That’s important, says Eric Scheidlinger, a leadership in energy and environmental design-certified engineer and project manager for sustainable efficient practices with Reno.

“This is a new kind of construction — we know that from the difficult process of getting building plans approved that building departments haven’t seen projects like this before,” Scheidlinger said. “We’ve been doing solar projects for about a year and we definitely benefit from Envision’s expertise and experience with this kind of project.”

Noble founded Envision in 2006 after a two-year incubation while he was with the downtown architectural firm of Tucker Sadler Architects Inc. In 2004, when he was still the CEO of Tucker Sadler, he began designing an installation of 25 solar trees in the Kearny Mesa parking lot of Kyocera International Inc. using photovoltaic panels from the Kyocera Solar division.

The project was dedicated in June 2005, but Noble remained dedicated to the trees long after the contract ended. The grove of solar trees turned a 186-car parking lot into a 235-kilowatt generating plant with cars parked in its shade. The solar grove generated a savings of $50,000 in electricity during the first year.

Location, Location, Location

“We set the groundwork for massive installations where people want them,” he said. “Any place where a canopy can be installed, you can put in a solar row.”

Noble was so enthusiastic about the design, which is based on the artistry of actual trees, that the idea of creating a turnkey solar tree for parking lots nagged him into going out on his own. He established a partnership with the Walnut-based alternative energy division of Morrow-Meadows Corp., an electrical contractor with a national presence.

“We’ve been working with Envision since August,” said Jim Leahy, director of business development with Morrow-Meadows. “They design great projects and we do the electrical end of things.”

The partnership is wrapping up a 300-kilowatt solar park in Arizona and has gone to market with recharging stations for electric cars.

“This is such a smart idea,” Leahy said. “As the cars get better and better, and more mainstream, this market can only grow.”

Parking lots are an easy target for solar groves. They’re big, they’re paved, and they’re ugly. They bring no return per square foot in traditional use but are critically important to any business space.

“The trees add value by creating shade, charging cars and creating energy,” said Scheidlinger. “Instead of the sun heating up asphalt and your car all day, your car is shaded, the ground stays cooler and the sun’s power is harnessed to let people get to and from work.”

Reno Contracting looked at the trees and wanted in.

“We’ve been doing commercial construction, hotels and office space, biotech,” Scheidlinger said. “We’d like to bring that added value to our clients and we think they would like to have the opportunity to have charging stations and power generation in their parking lots.”

Reno and Envision are working on an installation at a San Diego Gas & Electric Co. facility and they’re working with General Motors Co. on creating charging stations for the Volt, GM’s new electric car which runs on both gas and electricity and needs about four hours to fully charge.

Employing a Resource

“It makes sense to charge at work and at home,” Noble said. “The battery is good for four to six hours of driving, so being able to plug in at the parking lot at work gives you a lot more flexibility as a driver.”

The SDG&E facility, which both Noble and Scheidlinger declined to identify, is slated for six solar trees which will generate about 14 kilowatts each.

There are challenges with the installations. Most electric cars have a distinctively individual plug and outlet, so a universal charging station is a tough design.

“The cars vary. The Tesla is different from the Volt and they’re both different from the Nissan Leaf,” Noble said. “But everyone I know who has one loves it and that tells me they will only become more popular, which will lead to a universal charging station.”

Imagine the home with a Smart Fortwo car for city driving and a Volt, charging under a solar parking canopy — its extra power going into the house or the grid while the cars are shielded from the sun.

“We’re talking about no carbon emissions, none,” Noble exalts. “That’s very cool.”

Marty Graham is a freelance writer for the San Diego Business Journal.

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