News

Solved goes to USA – exploring smart cities in California

by Solved, Dec 17th 2020

California – famous of its environmentally conscious people

Smart city development, new work and cleantech are hot topics in the United States. Therefore exploring local cleantech scene has been on Solved’s agenda within past couple of years.

Solved VP Santtu Hulkkonen recently traveled to San Diego, CA to get introduced with the local cleantech ecosystem and to meet Solved experts such as Aaron Fyke, Ronald Newman, Gil Friend, Ravi Mikkelsen and Antti Säynäjoki in the area.  California is famous of its environmentally conscious people and ambitious sustainability targets and therefore it is definitely right and fun place to visit.

California is a pioneer in renewable energy in USA

Biomass-to-Energy in Southern California

California has one of the most progressive renewable energy targets in the world. Biomass as a renewable energy resource has not reached its full potential to contribute to California´s energy needs. Our plan is to engage selected municipalities and other public and private enterprises in Southern California to plan and implement more effective biomass resource utilisation.

Steps:

  1. Pre-feasibility: Waste-to-energy needs and biomass availability in Southern California
  2. Engagement of selected municipalities for collaboration
  3. Preliminary concept design to localize and adapt Scandinavian best practices in Biomass-to-Energy.
  4. Roadmap for effective biomass utilisation for energy production in selected municipalities.

Solved experts Aaron Fyke, Åsa Hedman in addition to Aleksi Lumijärvi have worked  in San Diego energy management to make good decisions in new energy generation and energy storage facilitation systems.

Solutions to cut LA Metro’s water use by 20 percent. Solved has recently finished a project in San Diego

The Californian state has issued mandatory cutbacks in urban water for Los Angeles County transportation agency to reduce its water consumption by 20 percent by 2017.  LA Metro is currently implementing various water conservation and efficiency activities as part of its Water Action Plan. Primary objectives are related to water usage data, identification of reasonable water conservation strategies and economic implications of the strategies. Measures should be considered from planning, procurement, design, construction, operations, and maintenance perspectives.

LA Metro is seeking new ideas and concrete solutions for water conversation and efficiency (water use, irrigation, washing, water re-circulation etc.), which can be replicated system-wide. Special emphasize is given for solutions and practices to stimulate behavioral change of how people – both employees and customers of LA Metro – use water. There clearly is a high demand  in circular economy and biomass to energy type of solutions, which of course offers huge opportunities for Solved experts as well.

Inspirational chat among Santtu Hulkkonen and Gil Friend, Chief Sustainability Officer CSO, of the City of Palo Alto. Cleantech professionals discussed how to efficiently insource global talent to overcome future challenges of the cities.
San Diego is one of the nation’s top locations for R&D in biotechnology, engineering and life sciences.
San Diego ranks first in solar installations in US, with more than 93,000 rooftop systems in the region.
San Diego Bay Area is famous of its high quality of life, beauty and wild life. La Jolla is a famous place for recreation where people from San Diego area and tourists like to go for recreation, golf and surfing. This is quit close to water desalination station.

Organizations in Cleantech

San Diego Regional EDCCenter for Sustainable EnergyCleantech San DiegoEnergy Policy Initiatives CenterSan Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology