California Dairies Inc. (CDI) is the largest milk and dairy co-op in California, producing 17 billion pounds of milk annually. CDI declared a goal to become carbon neutral by 2050, and to make strides toward this carbon neutrality goal, CDI partnered with Skyven Technologies to install a solar thermal system at its dairy plant in Turlock, California. The system consists of 300 solar collectors (total absorption area of 39,945 square feet) installed at the CDI Turlock plant, which preheats the dryer air to provide renewable energy heat to the plant, decreases the plant's natural gas usage, and decreases plant emissions. The solar thermal system was backed by funding from the California Energy Commission and addresses key elements of California’s clean energy and climate goals such as public health, environmental, and economic needs.
Twelve months of measurement and verification data were collected and analyzed from the installed solar thermal system. The extrapolated data show that the annual heat delivered by the system was 10,508 million British thermal units per year, the annual natural gas savings at the plant was 127,683 therms per year, and the annual carbon dioxide emissions reduction was 678 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year.
