The county court house in Hendersonville, North Carolina has a new addition. One that enables the county to heat water for 47% less while also working to reduce carbon emissions.

A 32-panel solar power project has been installed; the Law Enforcement Center is playing host to this 567,000 kBTU system which will heat the 2,700 gallons of hot water used by the facility every day.

The five components that make up the newly installed system include: the collector, typically roof mounted and very visible; the heat exchanger that transfers the energy from the collector panels to the water in a closed loop system; a water storage system that’s utilized to store water for peak usage; pumps to move the heated water to the area of usage; and a controller or thermostat that is used to monitor the efficiency of the system.

Hendersonville signed a 15-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) on the deal.

The school board in Anderson County has approved a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) that will result from the installation of solar panels on several of its K-12 facilities.

This PPA enables the county's schools to generate and sell power to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) through a TVA-sponsored program called the Generation Partners Program. The agreement is expected to generate over $115,000 in revenue annually for the county school system.

The project is expected to perform at 80 percent efficiency for 20 years. It has a life expectancy of 30 years, and the Anderson County Board of Education reserves the right to purchase the solar paneling project after the first seven.

The school system in Douglas County, Oregon is using its recent development of a biomass burning facility to not only reduce its utility costs but also to bring money and jobs as well as to educate.

The rural county school system is using its alternative energy project to heat a 35,000 square-foot facility called the Days Creek School. The school chose to partially finance the $500,000 project using reserve funds and construction loans so that school may utilize Federal and state tax credits.

Estimates show the school saving $6,600 a month using the new system.

MidAmerican Energy Holdings, an Iowa-based utility, recently acquired a 550-megawattAC solar farm in Southern California for $2 billion. The project is still under construction and is set to finish in 2015.

Pacific Gas and Electric Company signed a 25-year power purchase agreement. This project (and PPA) will help California to meet its mandate to generate 33 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2020.

For more on MidAmerican's acquisition click here.

Arizona State's downtown Phoenix campus now features a 322-panel solar power system which generates approximately 77-kilowwatts of energy.

The $815,000 project was installed on ASU's Walter Kronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The solar power generating system will produce about 122,335-kilowatt hours of energy per year. A solar panel installation made the most sense because of the high amount of sunlight that the area is exposed to in any given season.

ASU has Power Purchase Agreements (PPA's) with local utility companies and solar power project developers for the other 50 solar projects spread across their four campuses. These contracts range from 15-year terms to 20-year terms.

The Kronkite Solar Power Plant is unique in that its agreement is both a public and a private partnership setting a precedent for publically owned properties across the nation which are aiming to reduce their emissions and stabilize their utility costs.

The Doubletree in Tarrytown recently signed a 15-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with a clean energy provider for the installation of a Combined Heat and Power system (CHP) worth over $2 million.

CHP systems are much more environmentally friendly than traditional coal-fire plants and work to capture heat that would otherwise be wasted during the production of (off-site) electricity. The system that is planned for this Doubletree is a 100-kilowatt system with back-up capabilities.

The hotel chose to participate in the energy provider's on-site utility solution which means that Doubletree will pay only for the energy used and will avoid all capital, installation, and operating costs.

Plainesboro, New Jersey's new, 636,000 square foot University Medical Center of Princeton is playing host to one of the most ambitious renewable energy efforts on the East coast by installing a cogeneration system with the aid of NRG Thermal.

NRG is facilitating the implementation of the $34 million project which features a 4.6-megawatt gas turbine as well as three 24,000-lb/hr boilers, three 1,000-ton electric chillers, a 700-ton steam absorption chiller, a heat recovery generator, and even a thermal storage system for off-peak chilled water production.

Officials involved with the Princeton Healthcare System agree that the installation of this green energy project is not only the right move for the environment but also provides multiple levels of protection against power outages; a priority for hospitals. And by entering into a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with NRG Thermal the 238-bed medical center is able to significantly reduce its energy bill as well as carbon emissions.