EV&AE(Smud's Alcatraz Solar: Power, maint & emergency EV recharger)

[Bruce EVangel Parmenter <brucedp@YAHOO.COM>]

EV&AE(Smud's Alcatraz Solar: Power, maint & emergency EV recharger)
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Smud Looks West--to Alcatraz Utility Hopes to Provide Solar Power for
Former Prison
The Sacramento Bee Thu, Jan 29 1998  Full story
The rows of bare bulbs that light Alcatraz's concrete cells could
someday draw on electricity created from sunlight -- and supplied by
Sacramento's public utility.

In one of its highest-profile solar efforts yet, the Sacramento
Municipal Utility District is angling to become the power supplier for
California's most infamous ex-prison.

SMUD is offering to set up solar panels, at no cost to the park that
now runs Alcatraz, probably on the roof of the massive, yellow cell
house that can be seen from San Francisco's wharf.

SMUD would own and maintain the solar system, and bill the park for
the electricity it produces.

"We think it's a very viable solution, and it would work very well out
there," said Don Zeiman, chief of public utility management for the
National Park Service, although he stressed that much analysis lies
ahead.

Solar power looks so appealing for Alcatraz partly because everything
else looks so dismal.

The rocky island in the San Francisco Bay has defied every attempt to
hook it into the mainland's power grid.

Ships chewed up cables the Coast Guard laid twice in the 1960s.

The tiny power plant that supplied steam heat and electricity during
Alcatraz's federal prison days is a rusting hulk.

Beside it are two diesel-gulping generators that today produce power
at a whopping 23.6 cents per kilowatt hour, according to Jim
Christensen of the Golden Gate National recreation area, the national
park that oversees the island.

Basically, that means it costs nearly three times more to switch on a
light at Alcatraz than it does in Sacramento.

"We've found a place where solar is truly a competitive alternative,"
said SMUD General Manager Jan Schori.

At its peak, Alcatraz uses as much electricity as about 20 homes would
use on a blazing Sacramento afternoon -- 65 kilowatts.

There are educational videos playing repeatedly for visitors and banks
of chargers for audio cassette tours in six languages. There are
computer cash registers at two bookstores and an electric freight
elevator. There is even an electric pump for waste from the
restrooms.

"Doing anything on an island -- the logistics are unbelievable," said
park ranger Rich Weideman.

Weideman dreams of all three tiers of Alcatraz's cells blazing with
light again, the way they would have in prison days for security
reasons.

"If we want to recreate this historically for people, we need more
electricity," he said.

Now, the park conserves its costly power, lighting only a few cells,
keeping the dining room far dimmer than prisoners ever saw it, and
even using some compact florescent bulbs, incongruously modern for
their setting.

"I cringe every time I see those," Weideman said.

Over time, he would love to see solar power added to each building the
Park Service modernizes, and even a solar recharger for an electric
vehicle used for maintenance and emergencies.

But the plan before the park service now, in the form of an
unsolicited draft proposal from SMUD, is more modest.

It calls for SMUD to install about 7,000 square feet of photovoltaic
panels, supplying electricity at 23 cents per kilowatt hour, slightly
beating the current cost.  The 70 kilowatt system would be a little
more than half the size of the one SMUD has put up at the Sacramento
International Airport parking lot.

It wouldn't completely replace the generators, but it would let the
Park Service turn them off for several hours a day, reducing emissions
and cutting noise that can disturb human visitors and the 14 bird
species that nest or roost on Alcatraz, Weideman said.

It would also be an enormous publicity coup for a public utility
facing a newly competitive electricity market.

The Rock's 1.3 million annual visitors would see displays explaining
the island's new solar power source -- and naming its supplier,
Weideman said, so people would know "the government isn't footing the
whole bill."

The prospect of such a high profile plug isn't lost on others.

"We've gotten calls from a lot of photovoltaic companies saying, `Hey,
we want to have a chance to bid on this,' " said Andy Walker, a senior
engineer with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden,
Colo.

Walker has studied Alcatraz's rooftops, setting up monitors that
measured more than a year of storms, fog and brilliant days before
concluding that there's enough sunlight to make solar power feasible.

When SMUD learned of NREL's study, it began months of informal talks
with park staffers. One hurdle: Earthquake retrofit and other safety
needs run into so many millions, there simply is no money for solar
panels.

So SMUD crafted its electricity provider proposal. Now the Park
Service's Denver office is trying to determine if it satisfies federal
acquisition rules. Within two months, Zeiman said, he'll know if a
solar proposal needs to go to competitive bidding or can move forward
based on results of a market survey.

Any deal would involve input from his office, Alcatraz rangers and the
Golden Gate Recreation Area's superintendent. It also would have to
dovetail with talks, expected this fall, on ferry service to the
island, since a contract linking transportation and electric service
expires at the end of this year.

If all goes smoothly, Zeiman and Walker predict, Alcatraz could go
solar sometime in the next six months to two years.

And if SMUD is chosen, it would be the be first time the public
utility would run a solar system outside its district, although it has
helped provide systems to buyers as far away as New Zealand.

SMUD's reputation as a solar leader could give it a boost.

"In the research I've done, they're tops," Weideman said. "They're
very prestigious."

Dave Collier, who has been handling SMUD's end of the negotiations, is
optimistic about his utility's prospects.

"I think it's highly likely" that SMUD will end up as Alcatraz's solar
electricity supplier, he said. "It's only a matter of time."

CAPTION:
Photograph special to The Bee / Robin Weiner Park ranger Rich Weideman
would like to see all three tiers of Alcatraz's cells brightly lit
again as they once were. "If we want to re-create this historically
for people, we need more electricity,"he said. Photograph special to
The Bee/Robin Weiner Fuel oil once was burned in this power plant on
the northeast side of Alcatraz to provide steam heat and electricity.
Today, in the lower-roofed building at left, two generators provide
power.
 ...
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Copyright 1998, The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.
 Tel#:916-321-1903, Fax#:916-321-1109
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