October 31, 2008

Staples Center, Contessa Applauded For Going Green

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently applauded the Staples Center in Los Angeles and Contessa Manufacturing Plant for going green. He recently installed the last of the 1,727 solar panels on the rooftop of the Staples Center in Los Angeles, and toured the Contessa Manufacturing Plant, the first frozen food facility in the world to be LEED certified. Last week, the state partnered with SunEdison to provide a zero-emission eight megawatt solar photovoltaic system to power 15 California Sate University campuses.

The Staples Center’s 345 kilowatt rooftop solar system is expected to eliminate over 10,000 tons of CO2, almost 30 tons of sulfur dioxide and over 30 tons of nitrous oxide over the next 25 years. The system was provided by Solar Power Inc. and AEG.

The Contessa Manufacturing Plant has waterless urinals that will save 200,000 gallons of water each year and solar panels the length of two football fields on its rooftop, which are expected to reduce the plants energy use and CO2 emissions by 65 percent.

California is aiming to increase its renewable energy sources by 20 percent by 2010, and 33 percent by 2020. According to an economic study released last week by the University of California at Berkeley and Next 10, California’s policies will create as many as 403,000 jobs in the next 12 years and household incomes will increase by $48 billion.

California environmental regulators recently released a near-final version of California’s plan to reduce GHG emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, which will go before the California Air Resources Board for approval at its December meetings.

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