California Dairies Inc. (CDI) is the largest milk and dairy cooperative in California, producing 17 billion pounds of milk annually. CDI has set 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 their dairy plant in Visalia, California. This system consists of 1,091 solar collectors (total absorption area of 21,820 square feet) that are installed on the roof of the CDI Visalia plant and preheat boiler feedwater to provide renewable energy heat to the plant, decrease the plant natural gas usage, and decrease plant emissions. The solar thermal system is supported by funding from the California Energy Commission and addresses key elements of California’s clean energy and climate goals such as public health as well as environmental and economic needs.
Twelve months of measurement and verification data has been collected and analyzed from the solar thermal system installed at CDI Visalia. The collected data show that the annual heat delivered by the system is 8,403 million British thermal units per year, the annual natural gas savings at the plant is 101,481 therms per year assuming 82.8 percent boiler efficiency, and the annual carbon dioxide emissions reduction is 539 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year.
