All commercial structures will be solar powered in California: First state to impose these standards

– Dr. Aparna Deshpande

All future commercial structures in California should now mandatorily have solar power plus energy storage . The new building codes are being amended in California and has become the first state to impose these standards. The California Clean Energy Commission (CEC) unanimously voted and decided as per the guidelines mentioned in the 2022 Build Energy Efficiency Standards. As per the commission these regulations may add 280 MW of annual solar capacity along with 400 MWh of energy storage. The specifications for the solar plus storage systems includes primarily a technical requirement  that the solar portion should be sized to meet a target of 60% of the structure’s loads. Also 10% reduction in the electricity exports of the total solar generation is targeted. As per the new commercial requirements  all future residential constructions must also be battery backed up. For this to implement the new homes must be equipped with a 225-amp busbar. Two circuits out of four, one of refrigerator and other one of bedroom should be backed up circuits with receptible outlets. A subpanel or a split-bus main panel for these circuits is also obligatory.  The batteries with at least 5 kWh should have a round trip efficiency of  more than 80 % and 70% nameplate capacity remaining after 10 years (warrantied) or 4,000 cycles. These battery systems should be capable of programming remotely in different modes. The only motivation of the state being this programmability  is to harmonize the distributed energy storage with power grid. The solar power is to be coupled with the battery system in many of these programmable modes. As per the basic control mode both battery and solar modes should be synergic  with each other to manage the onsite load. The next mode Time of use mode  will have batteries programmed to charge by solar power only. This charged batteries should be use at the highest priced time of the day. The systems will be capable of programming for minimum three times of the usage seasons. The last level  will be the Advanced Demand Response Flexibility Control programmability. As per the state this kind of storage will be capable of interchanging the charge and discharge periods as per the signals from the local utility or a third-party aggregator. Millions of revenues are earned by California with the help of Ohm Connect company by using this type of systems by managing energy demands during the grid events. These technical capabilities are also being adopted by big Companies like SunrunTeslaSonnen. This new regulation is a part of the  intricate but widespread  form of solar-focused, clean energy  in California. Also, this regulation will have a prominent decrease in the price of new construction domestic solar power. This will help California in achieving its  net zero carbon foot print goal by 2045 which will subsequently result in carbon negative footprint in the following years

Please see the following news Source(s) and original reference(s) therein: (Source : pv-magazine-usa.com)

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Dr Smita Chaturvedi
Smita is an experimental condensed matter physicist. The quest for multifunctional materials motivates her. Smita finished her PhD from RDVV Jabalpur and BARC Mumbai in the year 2002 and worked as a research associate in IIT Mumbai and Oakland University, Michigan. Smita was awarded as a Fulbright Nehru Academic and Professional excellence fellow in 2018-19. Smita holds more than a decade of research and teaching experience. She possesses good knowledge about education system and research opportunities in India as well as abroad. Music and gardening are her mindful meditations.
Dr. Priyadarshini Karve
Dr Priyadarshini Karve has worked in the areas of household energy, decentralised waste-to-fuel technologies, climate change mitigation and adaptation, sustainable and climate-ready urbanisation, etc. She runs her own social green enterprise Samuchit Enviro Tech in Pune, focused on enabling access to sustainable products and services. She is also a co-founder of OrjaBox, a startup promoting solar thermal technologies. Dr Karve is a Founder Member of Clean Energy Access Network (CLEAN - a multi-state society of decentralised renewable energy practitioners and entrepreneurs) and Cleaner Cooking Coalition (CCC - an international organisation focused on promoting user-centric cooking energy technologies that are good for health as well as climate). She is also the National Convener of Indian Network on Ethics and Climate Change (INECC - focused on climate justice issues and working to bring people's voices in policy choices). Her work has been recognised by several national and international awards and honours.
Sanjay Khare
Sanjay Khare ,after his graduation in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, in 1986 has been associated with major Japanese & European Automotive OEMs in Indian Subcontinent for 35 years . Widely travelled across Europe & Asia , he has held positions across diverse functions of Automotive Corporations.
In his current role as Board Member and Vice President at Skoda Auto Volkswagen India , he is Chief Sustainability Catalyst to guide actions at Skoda Auto Volkswagen India along with the sister brands Audi, Porsche & Lamborghini.
He leads an active Climate Resilience program where the automotive major in India has already achieved Zero Waste to Landfill, Water Positive & Zero liquid Discharge Certification, Zero Accidents , targeting an 18.5 MW of installed Roof Top Solar plant at a single Automotive site in India in 2021 and fully Carbon Neutral Production by 2025.
Sanjay has done his Executive MBA from Management development Institute ,Gurgaon specialising in Strategy & Marketing . He has active interests in driving Cultural Change, Competency building , Human Motivation topics while adopting/ innovating the technological advancements and total quality revolution.He is also a Qualified Independent Director registered with Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Govt. of India. An active speaker on Automotive & Sustainability topics on National & International forums.
In personal life, he is an Endurance Cyclist having participated in many adventure ride expeditions . He also spends his time in developing mastery on Indian Classical Music instrument Sitar.