San Bernardino County, California: Powering the Path to Sustainability

A series of renewable energy projects in San Bernardino County are showing developers a path to sustainability for California. And for this 20,000-square-mile county of 2.2 million people in the Inland Empire, the current investment surge is just the beginning.

Bill Love, CEO of BioStar Renewables, is one of the green energy developers leading the way. His firm, which has around $100 million in built assets in sustainable energy, completed construction on a waste-to-energy conversion plant in the city of San Bernardino, the county seat, in 2022.

“We are a renewable energy developer. We have been in business for 13 years,” says Love. “I come from a solar construction background; and this is our first renewable gas project. We develop, own and operate renewable energy assets around the country.”

The BioStar plant that operates in San Bernardino is unique. “We take organic food waste that is normally going to landfills and divert that into anaerobic digestive tanks,” Love says. “That means without oxygen. It converts organic material to biogas. We clean it and run it through electricity-generating engines, and we put that on the grid.”

Normally, this waste would go into a landfill, where the waste would make methane over three to five years and send that methane gas into the atmosphere. “It is the most potent greenhouse gas emission,” Love says. “We capture 100% of the methane that is available in the material. Our process is very efficient.”

BioStar takes advantage of a state program run under SB 1383. The program is designed to enable cities to divert organic materials from landfills. “This is one of the first successful projects of its kind.” says Love.

Launched in 2022, the San Bernardino Waste-to-Energy project diverts 93,850 tons of pre-consumer food waste from the Coachella and Lamb Canyon landfills each year. As a result, 85,000 gallons per day or 31 million gallons of food waste per year will create the following annual totals:

• 21,637,200 kWh of electricity
• 849,000 gallons of fertilizer
• 18,250 tons of compostable fiber
• 19,876,800 gallons of clean water for industrial reuse.

The facility has three digesters, with a total liquid capacity of 1.8 million gallons, and space for future expansion. The methane-rich biogas is fed through two 1.3-MW engines, creating caseload renewable electricity that provides stability to the local power grid.

Also, the project obtained a 2.6-MW utility grid interconnect. The project is supported by a 20-year power purchase agreement with Southern California Edison. The site layout is designed to handle additional feedstocks to increase volume and revenue while sending excess biogas to heat recovery or to the flare.

BioStar Finds ‘A Very Stable Workforce’
Love says BioStar selected San Bernardino because “the project is collocated with one of the major feedstock providers — Denali organic recycling. That reduces the need for hauling costs. It is very efficient. Other people deliver to the facility.”

Love says his firm began construction in 2019. “We’ve been operating for three years”, he says. “ We’re also developing solar projects across the country. We have a solar field in Riverside County that provides power to Temecula and Lake Elsinore. Those are just south of here.”

He adds that his company loves the local workforce. “Our plant would qualify for one of Mike Rowe’s ‘Dirty Jobs’ shows,” he says. “We have had very little turnover. It is less than 10% a year. We have a very stable workforce.”

“We have had very little turnover. It is less than 10% a year. We have a very stable workforce.”
— Bill Love, CEO, BioStar Renewables

Incentives helped close the deal, he adds: “We received a sales tax abatement on the purchase of equipment used during construction and a $3 million grant from CalRecycle.”

BioStar is part of a burgeoning trend. Around San Bernardino County, cleantech companies are investing heavily into sustainable power solutions. One of them is AXA IM Alts, a global leader in alternative energy investments. AXA has teamed up with Cabot Properties to build the first amenity solar project in California.

The two firms announced July 15 that they had completed a 114-kW rooftop solar array on a 261,000-sq.-ft. industrial property in Fontana. The 211-panel installation, AXA’s first solar array in California, will provide low-cost renewable power to the industrial tenants. The system should produce more than 200 kWh of renewable energy annually and reduce onsite carbon dioxide emissions by more than 141 metric tons.

AXA IM Alts and Cabot Properties have completed the first amenity solar project in California, providing solar power to industrial tenants in Fontana.
Photo courtesy of AXA IM Alts

“AXA IM Alts is committed to delivering positive environmental and social change through its investments,” said Steve McCarthy, head of Real Estate North America at AXA. “Development is underway on several other U.S. solar projects as we scale our solar provision and roll out additional capacity across our nationwide industrial portfolio.”

Power Users Need a Good Backup
In San Bernardino County, advancing sustainability also means advancing the technology that enables the efficient transmission of power. DSPM (Digital Signal Power Manufacturing), based in the city of San Bernardino, is a leader in this field. An engineering-based design and manufacturing company, DSPM creates integrated engineering platforms to ensure quality and reliability of backup power systems for applications in elevators, stadium lighting and many other uses.

DSPM personnel have been involved in the power quality business since 1974. The company itself has been in business since 2002.

“We do emergency power backup inverters,” says Rose Hanson Corona, general manager of DSPM, which was started by her father, Milton Hanson. “He decided to go off on his own and start DSPM with his life savings in 2002. We keep trains running during a power outage. We use elevator kinetic energy to recharge our batteries; and we have developed an inverter that runs off the third rail power that goes up to 500 volts DC very easily.”

When her father founded the business, the company was producing eight to 10 units a year. “We produce up to 1,500 units a year now,” says Corona. “We have come a long way since 2002. We have 35 employees today. We began in Ontario, but we have been in San Bernardino since 2004.”

The central location of San Bernardino is an ideal fit for the firm, says Corona. “It allows us to be close enough to Los Angeles to have major suppliers and customers here — and far enough out to be close to Arizona and Nevada and enable us to conduct business there too,” she said. San Bernardino’s eastern boundary borders both Nevada and Arizona.

She adds that “I just had a meeting in Phoenix and I was able to get there quickly.” It is much calmer here. Plus, there are transformer manufacturers and breaker manufacturers who are in Southern California. We can pick up and work with them easily.”

DSPM has forged a successful business supplying power solutions to customers in the space industry, defense industry, education, sports, healthcare and other fields. Corona says that the plethora of construction projects across Southern California creates a constant demand for DSPM products.

“Construction sites are the biggest source of our business. That drives the need for more emergency lighting. All these things need an emergency lighting inverter — schools, hospitals, stadiums, bases, etc.,” she says. “Elevator inverters are going into new construction mostly. They have run out of space in LA. It has moved out to the Inland Empire. We supply Sea World and Disneyland and other places. We go to the sites and maintain them personally. We power the big stadium at Sea World. We also supply The Living Dead Zombies ride at Universal. We supply locations at Disney World in Florida. Military bases are a big market for us across the U.S. too.”

San Bernardino County Lends a Hand to DSPM
In terms of workforce, Corona says that “we find an exceptional quality of employees in the county. We get a lot of good candidates, especially in the engineering field. We partner with and offer internships to local colleges. San Bernardino County set me up with the local high school here. Local high school students will come here to work.”

Corona adds that DSMP recently expanded to service the elevator market and the third rail market. “That has been a huge expansion for us, providing emergency power to these sectors. Two power battery packets will take you up a floor or down a floor.

“We find an exceptional quality of employees in the county. We get a lot of good candidates, especially in the engineering field.”
— Rose Hanson Corona, General Manager, DSPM

There is a huge market for backup systems like this. It can run for 120 minutes too. That allows for greater practice of emergency evacuations,” she said. She also credits the folks at the San Bernardino County Economic Development Department with helping DSPM grow its business. “They have been extremely helpful,” she says. “Somebody recommended that I look into the county to help with exporting our products to the world. The county has put me in touch with embassies worldwide. They also introduced me to someone who will feature us in a trade show with 1,500 attendees. We appreciate that help.”

This Investment Profile was prepared under the auspices of San Bernardino County. For more information, contact the County’s Economic Development Department at 909-387-4460. On the web, go to www.SelectSBCounty.com.