Biodico’s Zero Net Energy Farm Energy - Self-Sufficiency Using On-Site Renewable Resources in a Disadvantaged Community in the San Joaquin Valley

California has pioneered and instituted several policies in the energy sector to address climate change while preserving the state’s people, economy, and resources. Development and deployment of new technologies in clean energy are critical to meet California’s clean energy goals; yet implementation must expand on a community scale. This especially is important to low-income and disadvantage areas impacted by poor air quality, pollution, and lack of access to funding to widely incorporate clean and cost saving technologies.
The Zero Net Energy Farm (ZNEF) project received a grant from the California Energy Commission under GFO-15-312 for The EPIC Challenge: Accelerating the Deployment of Advanced Energy Communities, specifically in Group 3: Advanced Energy Community Located in a Disadvantaged Community in Northern California. The ZNEF project goal was to make a farm in a disadvantaged community in the San Joaquin Valley energy self-sufficient using on-site renewable resources. The four elements for determining the feasibility of this project were
(1) a resource assessment, (2) a technology review, (3) permitting, and (4) financing. These four elements applied to produce the Master Community Design.
The Master Community Design integrates and aggregates twelve components into a virtual power plant that provides renewable power to the ZNEF and responds to automated dispatch requests from the California Independent System Operator and Pacific Gas and Electric Company. The twelve components chosen for the Master Community Design blend intermittent and on-demand renewable energy technologies that are adapted to be agriculturally appropriate and offset a complex demand equation of total volume of power, time of use, peak demand, and frequency modulation to maximize economic viability.
ZNEF project benefits include: (1) ability to be replicated in California’s agricultural community;
(2) increased grid efficiency, resiliency, and reliability; (3) enhanced energy security by distributing and localizing energy production; (3) mitigated adverse environmental impacts associated with conventional electricity production by decreasing water consumption, mitigating emissions of greenhouse gases, criteria air pollutants and air toxins, and reducing adverse impacts to human health; and (4) green job creation and economic development in one of the most disadvantaged areas of California.