Prestage Foods, a 260,000-sq.-ft. turkey processing plant in St. Pauls, NC saw construction begin on a solar thermal farm, which will supply an estimated 100,000 gallons of hot water per day for use in its operations. Supplied by FLS Energy, the solar hot water project is expected to be one of the more significant solar-thermal energy systems built in the US.
Campbell Soup Company has entered into a power purchase agreement (PPA) and land lease agreement with American Capital Energy (ACE) to construct a 2.3 mega-Watt capacity photovoltaic (PV) solar power generation ground-mount tracker system on 14 acres of the processor’s facility in Sacramento, CA. The plant supplies Campbell’s soups, sauces and beverages to 10 Western states and the Far East.
Efficiency was built into Frito-Lay’s Casa Grande plant a quarter-century ago, but the snack maker takes the facility’s energy- and water-conservation systems to a new level with near net zero.
Commodity prices and a credit crunch sidelined the first wave of biofuel plants, but process inefficiencies also played a role. The next generation of ethanol producers won’t make the same mistake.
