Hi-Tech – Central California

February 19, 2026 By Faughn Education • Health/Medical • Hi-Tech 0 Comments

UC Merced Scientists Among Global Elite Shaping AI, Climate and Health

UC Merced continues to demonstrate its growing influence on the global stage.

Several faculty members landed on Clarivate’s 2025 list of the world’s most‑cited researchers. The honor is reserved for the top 1% of scholars whose work has shaped their fields over the last 10 years. Clarivate, which produces journal impact factors and other analytics, says the award identifies the world’s most influential researchers.

Researchers have always advanced scientific understanding by building upon the discoveries of those who came before them. Today, they publish in peer‑reviewed journals. Their work is evaluated by experts before it is shared with the wider community. In every new paper, authors show how their work fits into the larger scientific story by citing earlier research, then clearly laying out the fresh insights and contributions their latest study brings to the field.

For UC Merced, the Clarivate recognition reflects a mature and fast‑advancing research enterprise rooted in Central Valley priorities — water, wildfire, climate resilience and equitable innovation — and extending into frontier areas such as artificial intelligence. Recognition on the Highly Cited list is a marker of UC Merced’s trajectory: a young campus now operating at top‑tier research intensity, producing scholarship that shapes its fields and its region.

As Clarivate’s President of Academia and Government Bar Veinstein put it in announcing the 2025 list, the honorees “advance innovation and inspire the global research community to tackle society’s greatest challenges with creativity and ingenuity.”

For the Valley, that means world‑class research rooted in local needs. Merced’s labs thrive on close student‑faculty collaboration, often with undergraduates contributing to published research — an opportunity that can be rarer at older, larger institutions.

Ming‑Hsuan Yang, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, has appeared on the Highly Cited list annually since 2018, helped by seminal work in face detection, object tracking and representation learning. Now, his group is pushing into vision‑language models — systems that connect images and text and increasingly power generative tools and reasoning engines. Making the list again, he said, shows he has not peaked.

“I’m still doing the work,” he said. “I’m still making a good impact. I’m glad people use my work and build on top of it. On the other hand, I also build on other people’s work, so it goes both ways.”

Yang maintains an active research role in industry while leading UC Merced students in cutting-edge computer vision.

Distinguished Professor Martin Hagger, the only recipient from the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, is recognized on the list for a sustained body of work in social and health psychology spanning self-control, determinants of health behavior, and theory integration. Hagger’s lab at UC Merced focuses on how beliefs, motivation and habits translate into real world behavior change. Hagger made the list for the fourth consecutive year. In 2025, Hagger was promoted to distinguished professor, received UC Merced’s Senate Award for Distinction in Research and was elected a fellow of the American Psychological Association.

One of Hagger’s most cited papers examines ego depletion—the idea that people’s self-control is limited and depletes, leading to lapses in impulse control. His work challenged that idea and received widespread attention, including media coverage in 2016.

“Highly cited authors might contribute to a department’s research reputation — having authors whose research is highly cited is a hallmark of a research-intensive culture at a university and suggests that the department and the university conduct very high-impact research,” Hagger explained. “As the department and UC Merced more broadly have moved toward achieving very high research intensity status, including reaching R1 status last year, the reputation of the research produced by its faculty is important.”

UC Merced’s cross-field recognition also extends to biochemistry and public health through Emeritus Distinguished Professor Henry Jay Forman, a pioneering scholar in free radical biology and redox signaling. Forman, one of the campus’s founding faculty members, has served in national leadership roles and continues to contribute to research and publishing.

In a year when Los Angeles was devastated by wildfires, climate experts John Abatzoglou, a professor in management of complex systems, and Professor Crystal Kolden, director of the campus’s Fire Resilience Center, were sought after by media and highly cited by their peers.

Both appear on the 2025 Highly Cited list. Abatzoglou is listed in both environment and ecology and geosciences, reflecting the breadth of his climate science portfolio. His lab develops datasets and tools that help communities, agencies and land managers understand climate variability and anticipate impacts.

Kolden, a pyrogeographer, focuses on the human environment dimensions of wildfire, from prescribed fire and mitigation to recovery planning. She is a recognized expert in community-focused resilience strategies.

“We’re public servants to the people of California first and foremost, especially at a school like UC Merced,” Kolden said. “It’s always an honor when your peers cite your research, because it means your work has impact. But my goal is always to reduce the potential for the wildfire disasters that destroy peoples’ lives.”

Yang’s AI work positions UC Merced at the frontier of a field transforming health care, agriculture and education; his students and collaborators help fuel a growing California talent pipeline. Hagger’s research informs interventions tied to chronic disease and mental health — key concerns in the Central Valley — and his international collaboration in Finland brings global insights back to campus.

Clarivate emphasizes that citation activity is only the starting point. The list is refined using quantitative metrics, qualitative analysis and expert judgment, with explicit attention to research integrity. That approach reflects how UC Merced faculty describe their work — impact rooted in collaboration, mentorship and openness.

“I have had a lot of great graduate students, and I really have to thank them,” Yang said. “They’re doing well, and I hope that making this list and helping raise the university’s profile draws even more highly qualified graduate students to our labs.”

https://news.ucmerced.edu/news/2026/uc-merced-scientists-among-global-elite-shaping-ai-climate-and-health

February 19, 2026 By Faughn Hi-Tech • New Developments 0 Comments

Stratolaunch lands major private equity investment

One of eastern Kern’s most promising aerospace operations has secured a nine-figure investment — likely its largest ever — from a prominent private equity firm intent on extending the company’s leadership in hypersonic testing services. Stratolaunch announced Tuesday the investment by Florida-based Elliott Investment Management LP will allow the company to increase vehicle production capacity, boost flight frequency and pursue carrier aircraft.

Separately, in a federal investment almost certainly going to Stratolaunch, the House on Thursday passed an appropriations package that includes $15 million to enhance an undisclosed, reusable hypersonic testbed in Kern County. The 15-year-old Mojave-based company, already credited with successful hypersonic flights of reusable, autonomous aircraft, said the ultimate goal of Elliott’s investment is more and increasingly relevant demonstrations for the U.S. Department of War and its partners in the private sector.

“At a time when speed, scale, capability and execution matter more than ever, this investment (by Elliott) enables Stratolaunch to move faster and think bigger,” President and CEO Zachary Krevor said in a news release. “The United States does not have time for incrementalism.”

The capital commitment of a firm that reported managing more than $76 billion in assets as of June 30 complements an earlier investment by Cerberus Capital Management LP, a private equity firm based in New York City that reports having about $70 billion in assets. How soon the investment might bring new jobs to the region is hard to say. Stratolaunch spokeswoman Eva Folsom noted Wednesday that everything the company does, from engineering to manufacturing to production and test flights, happens in Mojave.

“As we increase our fleets, that increases our flight cadence, and the more we fly, the more we can expand our company,” Folsom said. She added that the ramp-up Elliott is funding is expected to happen by the end of this year.

Though recognized locally for its large carrier aircraft, Stratolaunch’s key innovation is a much smaller vehicle that can, and repeatedly has, flown at least five times the speed of sound. It calls its Talon class of planes “the first and only commercial autonomous, reusable hypersonic aircraft with multiple successful flights.”

The federal government has taken greater interest in hypersonic flight after reports in recent years that China and Russia have exceeded U.S. capabilities. The U.S. Department of War has indicated it wants to scale up to field hypersonic flights once weekly on average. A news story published this week by UK-based Aerospace Global News said Stratolaunch’s plans to increase its flight cadence addresses the Department of War’s push for quicker design-test-learn cycles.

“Exploring additional carrier aircraft reduces reliance on a single launch platform and opens the door to parallel operations across multiple test ranges,” the story stated.

Folsom said Stratolaunch hopes to have a new Talon ready to fly as soon as this quarter as the company works to produce others. In addition, it is looking to either buy a second Boeing 747 carrier or build another massive, dual-fuselage Roc carrier, she said. Elliott’s head of global private equity, David Kerko, said in Tuesday’s release that the firm looks forward to partnering with Cerberus and Stratolaunch executives to support the company’s growth.

“We are pleased that our capital can help extend the company’s market leadership in hypersonic testing services and enable its continued expansion,” Kerko stated.

https://www.bakersfield.com/news/stratolaunch-lands-major-private-equity-investment/article_2494261c-e73b-45b0-b579-54aec0f527e9.html

September 16, 2025 By Faughn Hi-Tech • Top Stories 0 Comments

John Deere goes full GUSS with acquisition of Fresno County manufacturer

A Fresno County farm automation manufacturing pioneer has gone all in with John Deere to address the labor challenges faced by growers.

The Illinois-based farm equipment powerhouse announced last week that it has fully acquired GUSS Automation, LLC, of Kingsburg. The deal builds on an existing joint venture with GUSS established in 2022 that included a 40% equity investment.

Founded by Dave Crinklaw in 2018, GUSS manufactures autonomous sprayers that can be remotely supervised by a single operator who can manage up to eight machines at a time, according to a John Deere news release. Using GPS, lidar and proprietary software, GUSS machines navigate vineyards and orchards applying chemicals via a spray rig, with the goal of reducing operator error, labor costs and waste.

Lidar is short for Light Detection and Ranging — a sensing method that sends pulses of laser light to determine the presence, shape and distance of objects, often in great detail.

More than 250 GUSS machines have been deployed globally, accounting for 2.6 million acres sprayed over 500,000 autonomous hours.

GUSS sprayers will continue to be sold and serviced exclusively through John Deere dealers, as they are today. The business will retain its name, brand, employees and manufacturing facility in Kingsburg near Highway 99. John Deere officials said they will support GUSS in expanding its global reach and accelerating innovation while continuing integration with other John Deere technologies, including the Smart Apply precision spraying equipment stemming from a 2023 acquisition.

“Fully integrating GUSS into the John Deere portfolio is a continuation of our dedication to serving high-value crop customers with advanced, scalable technologies to help them do more with less,” said Julien Le Vely, director, production systems, high value & small acre crops, at John Deere. “GUSS brings a proven solution to a fast-growing segment of agriculture, and its team has a deep understanding of customer needs in orchards and vineyards. We’re excited to have them fully part of the John Deere team.”

GUSS’ manufacturing operations expand John Deere’s U.S. manufacturing footprint to the heart of the country’s high-value crop production market. GUSS sprayers will continue to use John Deere Power Systems engines, first integrated in 2024.

“Joining John Deere enables us to tap into their unmatched innovative capabilities in precision agriculture technologies to bring our solutions to more growers around the world,” said Gary Thompson, chief operations officer at GUSS. “Our team is passionate about helping high-value crop growers increase their efficiency and productivity in their operations, and together with John Deere, we will have the ability to have an even greater impact.”

First entering development around 2014, GUSS — short for Global Unmanned Spray System — faced early challenges of a lack of available software for all of its applications. A four-wheel automated steering system allows for sharp turns in tight orchards. Laser technology compensated for the loss of GPS signals under canopies of leaves and branches.

Crinklaw and his father Bob started an agriculture spray business called Crinklaw Farm Services in 1982 with two tractors, spraying about 40 acres a day. Encountering their own labor pain points in their business, GUSS was born as an in-house solution. It first entered the market in late 2019.

June 26, 2025 By Faughn Energy • Hi-Tech 0 Comments

Championing the Transition to Clean Energy

Mechanical engineering Professor Ricardo Pinto de Castro has turned a penchant for systems-level thinking and a longtime love of cars into a climate-resilient research mission. From electric vehicles (EVs) traversing San Francisco’s busiest streets to electric appliances such as induction stovetops and heat pumps becoming ubiquitous in homes, modern American society is transitioning away from fossil fuels to electric power from renewable energy sources, with climate change motivating even more rapid advancement.

De Castro, who also is a principal investigator at the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society and the Banatao Institute (CITRIS), has been interested in exploring how people adopt new technologies from his earliest days as a researcher.

“In undergrad, I really enjoyed opening a book and reading it from start to end,” said de Castro. “I am always driven to learn why things work the way they do. If you are in academia, you have to be a curious person, because the ‘why’ question is very important.”

De Castro holds three patents and has worked on projects ranging from electric tractors to robotic vehicles. Since joining the UC Merced faculty in 2021, de Castro has led a lab that combines power conversion with advanced control and optimization methods to achieve efficient, durable and reliable energy storage in electric and robotic vehicles. His team also explores the automation of vehicles, emphasizing safe motion planning and resilient control systems. And he advises the Bobcat Racing EV team that is designing and constructing a formula-style race car to compete in the Formula SAE competitions.

https://news.ucmerced.edu/news/2025/championing-transition-clean-energy

April 21, 2025 By Faughn Hi-Tech 0 Comments

Stockton’s Applied Aerospace acquires firm that worked on Webb Telescope

A Stockton-based aerospace company is reaching for the stars with the acquisition of a firm that, among other things, was part of the team that created the deployable sunshield on the James Webb Space Telescope. Applied Aerospace, which makes various aerospace components, said earlier this month it has completed the acquisition of NeXolve, a Huntsville, Alabama, company with expertise in advanced polymers, films and resins used in space applications.

NeXolve helped create a five-layer sunshield for the Webb Telescope that’s the size of a tennis court. Because the telescope’s scientific breakthroughs are made by detecting infrared radiation, it needs to be kept extremely cold. The sunshield protects the spacecraft from the intense heat of the sun. NeXolve has made other membrane-based products for space as well. These include deployable solar sails that gather radiation from the sun to propel a satellite. And the company crafted an atmospheric drag sail that can brake a failing or antiquated satellite to force it reenter the atmosphere where it harmlessly burns up instead of becoming another piece of space junk.

In acquiring NeXolve, Applied Aerospace also picks up its modern facilities. Those include a spacecraft assembly bay and a characterization laboratory.

NeXolve’s work in developing, making and testing the sunshield on the Webb Space Telescope, billed by NASA as the largest and most complex instrument of its kind ever put into space, earned the company NASA’s Collier Trophy for achievement in astronautics.

Applied Aerospace also makes a variety of aeronautical products. They range from fairings, rudders and elevators on the refueling boom of the Air Force’s KC-46A Pegasus air tanker, a derivation of the Boeing 767, to the composite reflector and strut assembly on the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Due to launch in two years, the Roman Space Telescope is designed for research into dark energy and dark matter.

Applied Aerospace’s business has been soaring. It announced in February that it closed its fiscal year with a backlog of $450 million in work, a company record high. The company said it landed 37 new contract awards and saw expansions in its existing programs.

September 26, 2024 By Faughn Hi-Tech • Workforce 0 Comments

Central Valley effort aims to train farmworkers to master the technology replacing fieldwork

Angel Cortez was ready for a change.

Cortez, 43, is a Mexican immigrant who has worked in agriculture, landscaping and restaurants since he arrived in California more than 25 years ago. But he said a workplace injury nearly a decade ago has made physical labor — jobs requiring him to stand or walk for long periods — exceedingly painful.

He has been looking to transition into jobs he could do primarily while seated. But his options felt limited: He has a high school education from Mexico, but doesn’t speak English fluently and wasn’t comfortable using a computer. So when he heard about a program at Merced College that would help him develop new skills for agriculture, he took a leap.

Cortez, a father of four, is part of the first cohort in a new certificate program launched last month at seven Central Valley community colleges that aims to ensure farmworkers don’t get displaced as the state’s powerhouse agricultural industry transitions to a more mechanized future.

As more farms move to drip irrigation systems, tractors that propel themselves with GPS guidance and robots that eliminate weeds with focused laser bursts, the certificate program aims to prepare 8,400 workers for higher-tech, higher-paying jobs in agriculture by the end of 2026. It is free to workers who enroll.

The program is one component of a larger effort to drive agricultural innovation in the Central Valley. The federal Economic Development Administration in 2022 awarded $65.1 million to a coalition of organizations, led by the Central Valley Community Foundation, that are working to integrate technology into the region’s vast farming operations.

The opportunity comes at a moment of transition for California agriculture. The industry is facing higher employee costs, resulting from state laws raising the minimum wage and requiring overtime pay for farmworkers. The labor force is aging, and immigration from Mexico — once a steady source of new workers — has slowed. And farmers are facing pressure to evolve long-standing methodologies for nurturing crops as the state enacts stricter regulations on groundwater and pesticide use and as climate change creates more extreme seasonal weather patterns.

The industry is turning to robotic harvesters, hydroponic tabletop farming and other developing technologies to address some of those challenges.

As farming methods advance, workers need to be retrained, said Marco Cesar Lizarraga, executive director of La Cooperativa Campesina de California, a statewide association of agencies administering farmworker service programs.

“As we know it, the farmworker is no longer going to exist in another 10, 15 years,” Lizarraga said. “It’s going to be a farmworker that’s much more savvy and much more of an operator of robotic equipment.”

Cannon Michael, president and CEO of Bowles Farming Co. in Merced County, echoed those sentiments, saying, “We’re constantly trying to look for ways to automate, or change, or have higher-paying jobs for higher-functioning individuals.”

To get a sense of the kinds of skills farmworkers will need to master in the new ag economy, the college instructors turned to agricultural leaders for feedback.

Growers said they need workers with a range of technical skills, people trained in the use of tablets and computers, who understand the complex regulations surrounding pesticides and can be promoted into management roles, said Karen Aceves, regional director for AgTEC, the workforce initiative within the Fresno-Merced Future of Food Innovation initiative.

“We need people who can do math, who can problem-solve, who are critical thinkers, who understand the whole ag value chain,” Aceves recalled growers saying. “We don’t know what the industry is going to look like in five and 10 years, so we want people that can grow. … And we want to keep the farmworkers that we have.”

The program’s design also drew on surveys of more than 10,000 farmworkers, conducted by grassroots organizations at tax preparation events, food distribution sites and flea markets. Most respondents had a middle school education or less. They preferred access to online courses from home and after work hours and wanted to travel 10 miles or less for an in-person class.

Students enrolled in the program study at their own pace through online courses and videos and take exams on campus. The program is the first in the California community college system designed as competency-based education, meaning that rather than earning traditional grades, students must prove mastery of specific skills, said Cody Jacobsen, director of ag innovation at Merced College.

The first lessons have focused on digital literacy — including how to use the computer, email and different systems for tracking fertilizer and pesticide use, said Karl Montague, who is teaching the course at Merced College. Later in the program, students will learn to operate and troubleshoot high-tech equipment and read and understand chemical labels. The course ends with a primer on workplace communication, including crafting an effective resume.

The colleges involved have hired student support coordinators, who help recruit students, assist them with registering for classes and connect them with resources such as laptops and transportation.

Along with Merced College, the certificate program is being offered at Madera, Fresno City, Clovis, Reedley, Lemoore and Coalinga colleges. It’s available in English and Spanish, and open to everyone regardless of immigration status.

At Merced College, seven of the 23 students enrolled so far are farm laborers, according to a college spokesperson. Among the other students are construction workers and participants in a program for formerly incarcerated adults. They range in age from 19 to 57.

“Before, I didn’t even know how to turn it on,” he said. Now, “I have my daughter’s laptop, and with this I go to places with Wi-Fi to study in the afternoons.”

It seems his career options are already expanding. He recently finished a separate forklift driving course at Modesto Junior College. And while he continues pursuing the agriculture certificate at Merced College, he said, he hopes to put his new computer skills to use as a driver for DoorDash.

Antonio De Loera-Brust, communications director for the United Farm Workers, cautioned against overestimating the impacts of programs like the community college effort, noting that the vast majority of farmworkers will be toiling in the fields for years to come.

He acknowledged the benefits of training farmworkers for higher-paying jobs. But, he noted, “‘everyone get promoted’ is not a scalable solution to farmworker poverty.”

“Let’s not forget all the farmworkers who, for any number of reasons, will never have that opportunity,” he said. For that reason, he said, the union continues to focus on improving farm jobs through better wages and safer working conditions.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-09-21/central-valley-effort-trains-farmworkers-to-master-technology-replacing-fieldwork

September 26, 2024 By Faughn Hi-Tech • Top Stories 0 Comments

Two Kern aerospace projects vie to become state’s ‘coolest’

There’s a fair chance the coolest product made in California comes from Kern County. Two aircraft projects with ties to eastern Kern have made a list of eight contenders remaining in the California Manufacturers & Technology Association’s Coolest Things Made in California competition. The pool of contestants initially numbered more than 140. Landing both products on the list of eight final contenders is the latest positive news for Kern’s aerospace industry. A local victory could bring still more attention to the region’s innovations.

Recent online voting gave Mojave-based Stratolaunch LLC a win over aerospace giant Boeing, according to contest results released Monday. Stratolaunch uses the world’s largest aircraft, with a dual-fuselage and a wingspan of 385 feet, to launch a rocket-powered vehicle that would accelerate to a speed of more than five times the speed of sound. Lockheed Martin, meanwhile, made it past the contest’s Top 16 round by showcasing its X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft, developed in part at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base. Measuring 100 feet long and 30 feet wide, the experimental plane has a tapered nose designed to break up shock waves that would otherwise cause a sonic boom.

The association’s inaugural Coolest Thing contest was won last year by the Tesla Model Y out of Fremont. In August, Kern’s B3K Prosperity economic collaboration announced a $2 million, federally funded partnership expected to build a “tech transfer” aerospace innovation hub that would link the region’s two military bases with local industry.

Additional federal help could be on the way. In July, Rep. Vince Fong, R-Bakersfield, a member of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, proposed adding $15 million to a $25.2 billion bill reauthorizing NASA’s human space exploration and related activities such as scientific research and testing.

Stratolaunch carried out an important flight test in February with its Talon-A hypersonic vehicle. For the first time, the vehicle carried fuel while being attached to the wing of the company’s massive launch aircraft. The test at the Western Range of Vandenberg Space Force Base was done in preparation for Talon-A’s first powered flight.

The X-59, whose 925-mph goal was first disclosed in January, gathers data for development of future aircraft that Lockheed Martin hopes will allow commercial supersonic flight over land. Such speeds are prohibited in the U.S. and elsewhere because planes traveling that fast have historically generated sonic booms that startle people living below. Initial flight tests have taken place at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale. The plan has been to locate the X-59’s base of operations at the Armstrong center.

Stratolaunch, Lockheed Martin and Armstrong did not respond Wednesday to requests for comment on the contest.

The Coolest Things contest resumes Monday with four days of voting to determine which products will contend for the Top 4 round. The contest, “powered” by JPMorganChase, reported receiving more than 100,000 votes during the Top 16 round. The winner is scheduled to be announced Oct. 18.

The host association says online that the competition “aims to highlight the remarkable products that have originated from the diverse and dynamic landscape of California.”

https://www.bakersfield.com/news/two-kern-aerospace-projects-vie-to-become-states-coolest/article_36c0f5d4-6af1-11ef-b8fe-23ad3ac58d96.html

August 21, 2024 By Faughn Hi-Tech • Tourism 0 Comments

Modesto-area 49ers fans can avoid traffic by taking ACE trains

Fans of the San Francisco 49ers can once again ride the Altamont Corridor Express to most home games. The trains will go to all but two games during the 2024 regular season at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. ACE cannot do the Monday night opener on Sept. 9 because it would interfere with normal passenger operations. The same goes for a Thursday night, Dec. 12. January playoff games could be added if the team qualifies. ACE has four weekday round trips between Stockton and San Jose, timed for commuters to Bay Area jobs. The closest station to the Modesto area is at the Lathrop/Manteca border. Levi’s is right next to the Great America station.

Details on train ticket prices and timetables are at www.acrerail.com. Riders who book early can get seven trips for the price of six. In a few years, ACE will be even more convenient. It has funding for one branch to Merced and another to Sacramento. Modesto and Ceres could get stations in late 2026 and other cities could join in between then and 2030. ACE has run the 49ers trains off and on since the 2014 opening of Levi’s Stadium. Fans avoid freeway traffic and parking fees.

“My blood pressure is low on the train,” one fan told The Modesto Bee’s Garth Stapley aboard a 2014 train. “It’s a lot easier than driving.”

ACE ALSO CAN SERVE CONCERTGOERS

The 2024 football service was announced in a news release from the San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission, the governing body for ACE. “We want fans to be able to cheer on their team, allowing them to focus entirely on enjoying the game-day experience,” said Chairwoman Nancy Young, the mayor of Tracy. Early into its expansion, ACE plans to continue serving mainly commuters. Future funding could stretch it to other weekday hours and to weekends, meaning no more need for special trains to Levi’s.

The stadium also hosts top-tier concerts, sometimes with rail service from the Central Valley. ACE took Ed Sheeran fans to a show last September. It did not take part in the Taylor Swift mania two months earlier, but Amtrak’s Capitol Corridor between Sacramento and San Jose did.

https://www.modbee.com/news/local/article291070735.html

August 20, 2024 By Faughn Energy • Hi-Tech 0 Comments

New battery installation comes online in eastern Kern

Clearway Energy Group’s 147-megawatt Rosamond Central Battery Energy Storage System is the company’s first battery retrofit project, made up of lithium-ion batteries delivering power for four hours nightly to support the reliability of California’s power grid.

The project, located adjacent to Clearway’s 192-megawatt Rosamond Central solar array, brings the company’s battery storage portfolio to more than 850 megawatts.

Energy storage at the site is contracted to Rosemead-based utility Southern California Edison under a long-term power agreement. It and Clearway have partnered on projects accounting for more than 1.5 gigawatts of renewable power, including the Alta Wind Energy Center at the Tehachapi Pass.

Clearway reported Rosamond Central BESS is among the first battery energy storage projects financed under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022’s energy community bonus incentive. The measure offers a credit of up to 2.75 cents per kilowatt-hour for renewably produced power projects built by workers, including qualified apprentices, are paid prevailing wages.

The company said more than 50 union workers led by San Jose-based electrical contractor Rosendin, built the installation over 115,000 man-hours of injury-free labor. The batteries were supplied Finnish Wärtsilä.

“Battery storage projects like Rosamond Central BESS play an essential role in deliverying on California’s Resource Adequacy program to keep the lights on for homes and businesses acros sthe state during peak hours,” Senior Vice President of Operators Valerie Wooley of Clearway said in a news release.

https://www.bakersfield.com/news/new-battery-installation-comes-online-in-eastern-kern/article_2ecbdf72-4b72-11ef-b656-9fd614a7e911.html

June 21, 2024 By Faughn Economy • Hi-Tech 0 Comments

High Speed Rail crosses 198 | John Lindt

Last week, crews from the California High Speed Rail project worked late night and early morning to place 84 pre-cast concrete girders across Lacey Boulevard and over State Route 198 to extend the Hanford Viaduct over the highway.

Girders ranged between 53 and 78 feet long and weighed as much as 79,000 pounds each.

The Hanford Viaduct spans more than a mile — 6,330 feet long and connects to the future Kings/Tulare Regional High-Speed Rail Station.

Hanford company sells just four cars in 23′

Start-up luxury car maker Faraday Future sold just four cars in the past year, the company reported recently. They leased six more.

The LA-based company has its only manufacturing plant in Hanford. But production at the million-square-feet facility has been slow. Faraday Future is facing delisting from NASDAQ as it looks to maintain its stock value above one dollar.

Adding to woes, Faraday has withdrawn its production guidance for 2024, citing current market conditions and lack of funding. Last November, the company planned to assemble 1,000 vehicles this year, “subject to availability of requisite capital.”

The company filed their annual report late with revenue of $0.8 million for 2023 and cost of goods sold of $43 million, compared with no revenue and cost of goods sold in 2022. This reflects that the company only began delivering vehicles in the third quarter 2023. Loss from operations was $286 million for 2023, as compared to a loss from operations of $437 million for 2022.

Last December Nasdaq notified the company that the bid price of its listed securities had closed at less than $1.00 per share over the previous 30 consecutive business days and, as a result, did not comply with Listing Rule 5550(a)(2). The company was provided 180 calendar days, or until June 25, 2024, to regain compliance with this rule. On April 18, 2024, Nasdaq notified the company that since it had not yet filed its Form 10-K it no longer complied with Listing Rule 5250(c)(1).This deficiency is now an additional basis for delisting. Now that report has been filed.

On April 24, 2024, the company received a letter from Nasdaq indicating that the company was not in compliance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5810(c), as the company’s securities had a closing bid price of $0.10 or less for ten consecutive trading days. The letter indicated that, as a result, the Nasdaq staff had determined to delist the company’s securities from The Nasdaq Capital Market. On May 1, 2024, the company timely requested a hearing to appeal the Delisting Determination and requested an extended stay of the suspension pending such hearing with the Panel.

Faraday Future stock briefly climbed over a dollar in May for two weeks but, since May 28, has been below that threshold at about 50 cents as of this writing.

Faraday’s future is uncertain.

Williamson Act cancelation bill shelved

A bill in the California Assembly to make it easier for farmers in the Central Valley to cancel their Williamson Act contract due to water shortage had divided the farm community. The California Land Conservation Act of 1965, otherwise known as the Williamson Act, authorizes a city or county to enter into contracts with owners of agricultural land to preserve the land for agricultural use, as specified, in return for reduced property tax assessments.

To preserve farmland, it imposes a 25 percent cancelation fee.

This bill proposed by Fresno Assembly member Joaquin Arambula would authorize a landowner, if their land is located in the counties of Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Merced, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, or Tulare, with a water basin in condition of critical overdraft, to petition the board or council to cancel a Williamson Act contract or a farmland security zone contract without penalty if the land meets specified criteria, including, among other things, not having permanent access to sufficient water.

That could speed its conversion to energy projects like solar farms and provide income to the land owner.

As of mid-May the bill was placed in the “suspense file” as it did not garner enough support in committee to move forward.

BOS dumps green energy saving project

Kings County Board of Supervisors had been studying making substantial investments in energy savings at the county campus similar to a project that the same supplier had done in past years. The supplier, Engie Energy, promised net savings over $4 million for the county. The County has completed four successful projects with ENGIE — a $3 million microturbine co-generation project in 2005, an $8.4 million central heating and cooling plant upgrade in 2009, a $4.1 million solar project in 2011, and an $11.9 million solar project in 2020.

This year an earlier staff report noted that the County has been seeing huge increases in its electricity cost recently, as high as 15% per year. They would like its energy consumption to be reduced as much as possible to reduce the effect of utility price hikes.

Also, the HVAC units at many of the facilities are well past their useful lives and the County would like to use this project to replace its old HVAC infrastructure without dipping into the General Fund.

But in late May the staff and board decided not to move forward with the green energy project.

A staff report says, “Essentially, this project is viewed as being cash neutral, providing more of a benefit in the way of allowing the County a vehicle to replace aging infrastructure, not necessarily providing the County with additional cash on hand, due to project savings, that could be used for other County initiatives and priorities. Additionally, the County recently initiated a comprehensive debt analysis which looked at all current and potential future debt, which included this project, to identify the financial health of the County if it were to take on debt for this project.”

At the conclusion of the debt analysis, staff recommended not to incur long-term debt for this project at this time. The Board agreed.

Egg farmers worried about new bird flu

The current avian influenza outbreak is the “greatest threat” to American egg producers, according to United Egg Producers President and CEO Chad Gregory.

“On-farm biosecurity is at its most stringent levels, and despite these robust precautionary measures, the egg industry has lost flocks to [bird flu] in recent weeks,” Gregory said in a statement. This is a sad and difficult time for affected farmers, who must act swiftly to prevent the spread of the disease and go through an extensive recovery process.”

A massive flock of over 4.2 million egg-laying chickens in Iowa was detected to have bird flu last week.

Walnut acreage down 4%

California’s 2023 walnut acreage is estimated at 420,000 acres, with 385,000 acres bearing and 35,000 acres non-bearing. Bearing acreage was down 4% from 2022.

Strong summer outlook as clean energy grows

Elliot Mainzer — California Independent System operator president — says CAISO is in a stronger position heading into the summer compared to previous years. The agency manages the grid and guides energy investment in the Golden State.

CAISO expects its resources will be able to meet forecasted demand plus an 18.5% reserve margin for all summer months, according to its summer assessment. The grid operator anticipates it will have more than 3,500 MW of surplus supplies over forecasted demand plus the reserve margin during key early evening peak net load hours in September, Mainzer said in the memo.

https://hanfordsentinel.com/community/selma-kingsburg/news/high-speed-rail-crosses-198-john-lindt/article_f5b1da39-4a92-5bb4-8a6a-d135b2d967a9.html

1-888-998-2345