Southern California Edison (SCE) announced the launch of a project to place 250 megawatts of solar panel capacity on company buildings in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.  The project hopes to add 1 megawatts of capacity each week of the 5 year project. The project is expected to cost nearly $900 million dollars, based on current estimates.  SCE points out that by scattering the installations throughout their service area and connecting directly to local sub stations, this project will reduce transmission related power loss and reduce stress on the regional grid. 

“Not only does this project bring carbon free energy, it also is likely to generate several million dollars a year in CO2 offset credits for SCE”, 4Offsets CEO Fred Weiss noted when interviewed on this news.  Assuming that these panels generate full power for 10 hours a day 300 days a year, which is likely in this desert location, the project will generate approximately 300,000 tons of offsets each year.  “When you add it up, it’s about $2 million worth of US voluntary credits or $12 million if credits are sold in Europe. This is a great example of how offsets can cause real change by providing investors with a better return”, Mr. Weiss added.

Scientists estimate that the Earth has been around for more than 4-billion years. In that relatively short timeframe by universe standards, our planet has witnessed more changes take place than any other body in our solar system. Once a desolate place, the Earth was uninhabitable, nothing thrived here but water and ice which almost covered the entire planet. Eventually, climate changes and some geological events produced an environment in which life slowly started to grow and adapt.Over the course of 4-billion years, life of all types has roamed our planet. From the dinosaurs before us to our hairy ancestors, the apes, Earth has been the home of many species. Of all the steps among the evolutionary scale, humans are without a doubt the most deadly to our loving mother. Apes walked upright and became men before the tectonic shifting of the plates moved continents to where we now know them to be on our globe. We were all in one relatively small area as humans. Our species evolved with a few key characteristics and dispositions. We needed to eat, be safe, and procreate. They were early mans only concerns.

As the years passed, the Earth slowly started to fill up with people. As the thinking-man became king of the evolutionary chart, humans started to divide, conquer, and inhabit all the continents in the world. From humble beginnings to over 6-billion people on today’s planet, we’ve caused more than our share of harm to the Earth’s natural resources. People produce waste; it’s just a byproduct of living. Both human waste which occurs naturally through the ingestion and digesting of food, and man-made waste like plastics and chemicals that we dump into the oceans.

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