Azusa, California

Each morning, as the sun casts its light down to San Gabriel Canyon, more than 100 kilowatts-worth of solar panels kick into action in Azusa, California, feeding clean and green energy into a very busy Los Angeles County electric grid. And that’s just the start. More and more of that bright southern sunlight is being harnessed and redistributed to provide light and warmth inside and out of Azusa homes and businesses.

Now, if Azusa is the local Camelot of solar power, then Cardinal Laboratories is its King Arthur. This local pet food producer and distributor is the epicenter of solar power in the city, currently on its own crusade to become a completely solar-powered company. Sure enough, just last fall, phase one of that crusade took effect when Cardinal Labs switched on a 367-panel, 71.4-kW solar photovoltaic system at its manufacturing and distribution center, making that facility 100-percent solar-powered. Phase two (already underway) involves the construction of a new solar-powered distribution center elsewhere in Azusa, followed by phase three: the energy efficient upgrade and solar transformation of its Cardinal Pet Care food distribution center. In Azusa, Cardinal Labs is a solar power symbol of Excalibur proportions, and a sure inspiration to the Round Table of solar knights to come.

When the California Solar Initiative went into effect in 2006, Azusa got right to it. Azusa Power and Light, local municipal utility, began offering rebates of $2.80 per watt, plus another $1.20 premium if the owner gave up their green energy credits. And, like a hungry answer to a dinner bell, solar power is moving in to the Canyon City, with at least three more solar projects to come this summer when a new round of government funding arrives.

As impressive as Azusa’s blossoming solar resume is, the city impresses in many other green ways as well. Most notable is Azusa Power and Light’s trendsetting LED TV rebates. Big, flat-screen HDTVs waste a lot of energy and heat. LED televisions, on the other hand, run much cooler and more efficiently, all while providing a better picture. In a land of entertainment, what could be better than a rebate for our number-one entertainment device?

Rebates are offered at 25% of the cost of the television, but Azusa residents can get a check for up to $750 in return for purchasing a more energy efficient TV. Not to mention $250 for an LED computer monitor. Excitement around these rebates is so high, it’s like a renaissance fair in King Arthur’s England — the real deal. Azusa was the FIRST city in California to adopt an LED TV rebate program and possibly the first in the entire country!

Now that’s Solar City leadership. And not without its crusades, either. We’ve already mentioned Cardinal Labs’ winning joust against fossil fuel energy. On the energy efficiency side of the round table, Paul Reid of Azusa Light and Water will be speaking at the 30th Annual Utility Energy Forum in Northern California to spread the good word about LED televisions and monitors, as well as the rebates that have Azusa and a growing number of other cities coming out of the dark ages ahead of the pack, enjoying a knightly mix of solar power, green building and energy efficient entertainment.

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Azusa, California