Frito-Lay, the United States, Europe, and Solar Power
Drone Flight Past a Frito Lay Plant and Their Solar Power Panel Farm in Casa Grande AZ
We pass this plant whenever we head south to Casa Grande for my healthcare visits with the Hematologists who monitor my blood resulting from 2+ years at Camp Lejeune. As you can see in the YouTube Clip it is a mass of solar cells. Arizona is all year around sun. It makes sense to attempt to power the plant using solar cells creating electricity. But it is not just solar power.
In Casa Grande, Arizona, the Frito-Lay’s snack food manufacturing plant is running entirely on renewable energy and recycled water while producing nearly zero waste. CDM Wilbur Smith designed and built a 650,000-gallon-per-day process water treatment and recovery system that recycles up to 75 percent of the plant’s process water—enabling Frito-Lay to reduce its annual water use by 100 million gallons.
The design-build process integrated CDM Smith’s and Frito-Lay’s technical engineers to efficiently select the best components for this first-of-its-kind facility. The 3D/4D design also brought the plant’s complex technology to life in real time. This allowed for a future computerized maintenance management system to maintain equipment and track costs—adding to the client’s confidence in this sustainable water reuse system.
This is in Arizona where the sun shines almost every day and water is at a premium.
Meanwhile back in Washington D.C. Solar Power outstripped all others in Europe last Month for First Time, Informed Comment
As the Trump Department of Energy and the Republican tax bill try to kneecap solar energy in the United States, Europe and China are making impressive strides in this sector, with economic and environmental benefits of which the US seems bent on depriving itself.
And in Europe? The Ember energy consultancy just announced that in June, 2025, solar was the single largest generator of electricity in the European Union.
It is the first time solar power beat out all the other power sources in Europe. A bonus: coal shrank to only 6%, even though some European countries, such as Poland, had been heavily dependent on it earlier.
Records for solar power production were set in 13 EU countries. No one will show surprise to see Greece or France on this list, how many of us would guess that these thirteen include Poland, Estonia and Germany?
22.1% of European electricity was generated by solar installations in June. Solar power generation was up 22% from June 2024.
Europe’s largest such installation is the Witznitz Solar Farm near Leipzig, which now has a capacity of 650 megawatts. It is privately built and runs with no government input. Witznitz just went into operation continuously at the end of March, 2024, and overtook its nearest competitor, in Spain. It powers over 200,000 households about equal to those in the entire state of Wyoming, and avoids 250,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually.
The second biggest solar installation in the EU is at Badajoz, Extremadura, Spain, northwest of Seville. Run by a Spanish subsidiary of the Iberdrola Group, it has an installed capacity of 500 megawatts and will also power more than 200,000 homes — equivalent to all of Wyoming. It has 1.4 million solar panels.
The next nearest source of electricity for the European Union was nuclear at 21.8%. Several nuclear plants had to shut down in France last month because they use older technology that requires cooling by river water, and the rivers got too hot.
The third source was wind at 15.8%. So, all the top three generators of electricity were low-carbon. So was the fifth source, hydro, at 12.8%. Its production was off because of droughts that reduced water flow. Fossil gas was fourth at 14.4%.
It is mindboggling to me how much things have changed in just 10 years. In 2015 coal produced about a quarter of Europe’s electricity and renewables taken all together were about a fourth.
Ember does a good job, but one essential thing they left out of this analysis was that Europe now has 61.1 GWh in installed battery capacity up by about a third over just last year. Mega-batteries help smooth out the grid to avoid brownouts and store daytime solar energy for use in the twilight or at night. Moreover, battery capacity is increasing hand over fist in Europe. So that by 2029 the 27 nations of the European Union will have 334 GWh in battery capacity. That capacity will turbocharge wind and solar, since they won’t actually be intermittent anymore.
The united States is going backwards under Tr__p.
When I began my career at SERI/NREL I felt that the work I was doing was for the benefit of future generations. Something we don’t seem to do much of anymore. All through the 80s and 90s the realists couldn’t see how this technology might make a significant contribution to global energy production. After all real men burn shit.
I am an old retired fart now and I can’t really describe how gratifying it is to see how things worked out. Of course, it is disappointing that our country has decided to provide the negative example. But I am not too broke up over that. I had always advocated for the notion that ours was a global mission supported by a global community of scientists and engineers. I always despised the political efforts to describe the work as a glorified jobs program. It never was and still isn’t about industry but rather deployment. Never gave a rat’s ass about where the stuff was made as long as it is widely used. Those counties that excelled in manufacturing were appropriately those that were willing to make the investment. Except for military junk we just don’t do that.
SW:
Thank you for your comment.
Bill
I know the coal, gas and oil oligarchs contribute to Trump and want to get paid back, but I think the major motivation is that both Obama and Biden took climate change seriously and Trump still calls it a hoax. It is a shame that the future of this country and the planet are being diminished and perhaps eliminated due to the pettiness of a not very bright cult leader. Of course, there is the larger problem that non cult members also voted for him which makes the whole country look like a Bob Jones Kool -Aid party.
@Terry,
Do you mean Jim Jones?
Yes, I did. Sorry. Senior moment and I am younger than Trump. sigh
perverse – adjective
(of a person or their actions) showing a deliberate and obstinate desire to behave in a way that is unreasonable or unacceptable, often in spite of the consequences.
in case anyone was looking for a word to describe the current administration’s environmental policy.
But I thought I would chime in with some good (if unsurprising ) news that was coincidentally reported by The San Jose Mercury news yesterday about clean energy in California.
I’ll just list a few highlights.
67% of retail electricity was generated by clean energy – all time high. Renewables accounted for 43%, about double the total in 2013. Nuclear power contributed 12%, which has been been in the same range for the past ten years, and unlikely to vary. Large hydropower contributed the balance. These numbers are for 2023.
The state goal is to reach 100% by 2045, which seems very doable at this stage.
Battery storage grew from1474 megawatts in 2020 to 15.763 gigawatts currently installed, with the CEC approving the “world’s largest” battery storage project last month. It will be spread across 9500 acres of obsolete agricultural land and include 1150 megawatts each of solar panels and battery storage.
That and more will be needed because EV sales for new cars in the state are at 25%. Of course EVs can also be incorporated into the energy grid.
It’s California, so it ain’t cheap. A Republican gubernatorial candidate (yes, we still have those) was quick to point out we have very expensive/regressive electricity rates. 66% percent of voters continue to support the 100% clean energy law nonetheless.
You can find more below. I’m a subscriber, but I think they offer a few freebies.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/07/14/california-reaches-new-record-clean-energy-milestone/
Geoff:
I knew a Geoff from Slate’s The Fray. It would be rather rare instance for me to have run into this person again. It has been a decade or so since then.
Thank you for the definition and the application of the word depicting or describing Tr__p and this administration’s behavior.
I would also expect California to lead the way. It is just in their nature to do so, If anything, their efforts will show clean energy and it benefits can be achieved. Since they are leading the way and taking the cost hit, I suspect less costly ways to have clean energy will be found.
What do sports and science have in common? Denying the ACC in either one is ridiculous.