Kern Community College District and ForeFront Power Awarded E+E Leader’s “Top Project of the Year” for Solar Energy Portfolio

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Kern Community College District and ForeFront Power Awarded E+E Leader’s “Top Project of the Year” for Solar Energy Portfolio

2025-04-02 02:55 Last Updated At：03:12

BAKERSFIELD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 1, 2025--

ForeFront Power, a leading developer of commercial and industrial-scale (C&I) solar energy and battery storage projects in the U.S. and Mexico, today announced that the Kern Community College District (CCD) Solar Portfolio has been recognized as a ”Top Project of the Year” in the prestigious E+E Leader Awards. Judges recognized the Kern CCD Solar Portfolio as an outstanding example of energy innovation in higher education.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250401366916/en/

The E+E Leader Product & Project Awards is an annual program recognizing excellence in products and services that provide companies with energy and environmental benefits, or in projects implemented by companies that improved environmental or energy management outcomes and increased the bottom line.

Awards were scored by a panel of independent judges from more than 20 companies, including Hyundai Motor Group, JLL, Air Force OEA, Navitas Partners, UCLA, TRC Companies, IWSI America, Intrinsic Textiles, Climate Social, and CapGemini.

With the sustainability and energy landscape evolving rapidly, professionals face increasing challenges in selecting the right solutions. The E+E Leader Product & Project Awards serve as a trusted benchmark, highlighting cutting-edge innovations and real-world success stories. Through rigorous expert evaluation, the program provides companies with vetted products and proven projects that drive meaningful improvements in sustainability and energy management.

"The winners of this year’s E+E Leader Awards are tackling some of the most pressing sustainability and energy challenges with real-world, scalable solutions," says Sarah Roberts, Co-President of E+E Leader and C-Suite Compass LLC. "These projects and products push industry standards forward and are setting new benchmarks for innovation and impact."

“Every year, our judges look to recognize the businesses that are truly moving the needle and striving for sustainability and operational efficiency,” says Kay Harrison, VP and head of the E+E Leader Awards program. “This year’s winners exemplify the kind of forward-thinking strategies and technologies that companies need to stay ahead in an increasingly complex energy and environmental landscape.”

About the Kern CCD Solar Portfolio

Kern CCD, one of the largest community college districts geographically in the U.S., serves over 30,000 students through its three colleges: Bakersfield College, Cerro Coso College, and Porterville College. To combat high pollution levels, reduce energy costs, and invest in student success, Kern CCD partnered with ForeFront Power to develop a 4.6 MW solar energy and storage portfolio across multiple sites.

The Kern CCD solar energy and storage portfolio includes solar canopies, solar ground mounts, energy storage, a microgrid, and EV charging stations across the District. Combined, these projects generate 5.46 million kWh of clean, renewable electricity annually, helping the District avoid emitting 3,800 metric tons of CO2 each year. This carbon offset is the equivalent of taking 850 gas powered cars off the road each year, representing a net positive for the region’s air quality.

"Kern Community College District and its three colleges are dedicated to promoting sustainability and advancing climate action. Our partnership with ForeFront Power exemplifies this commitment," said Kern CCD Chancellor Steven Bloomberg. "This collaboration not only makes sound business sense, but also directly benefits our students. Through investments in curriculum development and workforce training at the California Renewable Energy Laboratory at Kern CCD, we are preparing our students and our campuses for a sustainable future."

"This award validates our commitment to pioneering sustainable solutions in higher education,” said Marcos A. Rodriguez, Executive Director for Facilities & Operations at Bakersfield College. “The Kern CCD project demonstrates how strategic partnerships, and innovative technologies can create significant environmental and economic benefits for our communities and students."

Under the terms of a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Kern CCD, ForeFront Power developed, owns, and maintains the District’s solar energy portfolio. The PPA enabled Kern CCD to develop its portfolio at no upfront cost and without using bond funds. As utility costs continue to rise, Kern CCD is projected to save more than $8 million over the 20-year lifespan of these systems. These financial savings allow the District to redirect funds toward student-focused programs, reinforcing its mission to expand educational opportunities.

“By integrating solar power, energy storage, and EV charging infrastructure directly on campus, we’re not only helping Kern CCD cut costs and emissions but also creating hands-on learning opportunities for students pursuing careers in sustainability,” said Ruben R. Fontes, CEO of ForeFront Power. “This award-winning project demonstrates how solar, and storage can drive both financial savings and environmental benefits for educational institutions serving the next generation of the renewable energy workforce.”

As part of its partnership with Kern CCD, ForeFront Power provides financial support for a renewable energy curriculum that enables hands-on STEM learning with the small-scale solar arrays at Bakersfield College. This includes a collaboration with Strategic Energy Innovations (SEI) to fund Climate Corps fellowships, in which students engage in climate mitigation research with the California National Renewable Laboratory (CREL), an energy hub developed with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). ForeFront Power is also currently working with CREL to develop a microgrid at the Weil Institute Building, which will improve the reliability of power supply to the building, supporting the broader sustainability goals of the District.

About ForeFront Power:

ForeFront Power is a leading developer of commercial and industrial-scale (C&I) solar energy and battery storage projects in the U.S. and Mexico, also offering fleet electrification services. Over 15 years of working together, the ForeFront Power team has developed more than 1,900 behind-the-meter and community solar projects, totaling more than 1.6 gigawatt-DC of renewable electricity. ForeFront Power serves business, government, education, healthcare and community solar customers with a broad array of development, asset management and advisory services from its San Francisco headquarters and via teams based in New York, Mexico City, and across the U.S.

About Kern CCD

Kern Community College District (Kern CCD) serves communities over 24,800 square miles in parts of Kern, Tulare, Inyo, Mono, and San Bernardino counties through the programs of Bakersfield College, Cerro Coso College, and Porterville College. Governed by a locally elected Board of Trustees, the District’s colleges offer programs and services that develop student potential and create opportunities for our citizens.

About Environment + Energy Leader

Since 2006, Environment+Energy Leader’s website and newsletters have provided the definitive and objective voice in reporting on business-related energy, environmental, and sustainability issues. Visit: www.environmentenergyleader.com.

About the E+E Leader Product & Project Awards

For over a decade, the E+E Leader Product & Project Awards have recognized excellence in products, services, and corporate initiatives that drive energy and environmental improvements. Entries are evaluated using a rigorous five-point rating system by an independent panel of executive-level judges from leading organizations across various industries. To see this year’s winners and learn more about our judges, visit eeleaderawards.com.

Demand for viral 'torpedo' baseball bats has sent a Pennsylvania factory into overdrive

2025-04-04 22:35 Last Updated At：22:42

KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. (AP) — A 70-year-old man who plays in an area senior hardball league popped into Victus Sports this week because he needed bats for the new season. Plus he just had to take some cuts with baseball's latest fad and see for himself if there really was some wizardry in the wallop off a torpedo bat.

Ed Costantini, of Newtown Square, picked up the custom-designed VOLPE11-TPD Pro Reserve Maple, and took his hacks just like MLB stars and Victus customers Anthony Volpe or Bryson Stott would inside the company's batting cage and tracked the ball’s path on the virtual Citizens Bank Park on the computer screens.

Most big leaguers use that often indistinguishable “feel” as a qualifier as to how they select a bat.

Costantini had a similar process and thought the hype surrounding the torpedo since it exploded into the baseball consciousness over the weekend was a “hoax.” But after dozens of swings in the cage, where he said the balance was better, the ball sounded more crisp off the bat, the left-handed hitter ordered on the spot four custom-crafted torpedo bats at $150 a pop.

“The litmus test that I used was, I could see where the marks of the ball were,” Costantini said. “The swings were hitting the thickness of the torpedo as opposed to the end of the bat.”

More than just All-Stars want a crack at the torpedo — a striking design in which wood is moved lower down the barrel after the label and shapes the end a little like a bowling pin — and Costantini’s purchase highlighted the surge of interest in baseball’s shiny new toy outside the majors.

Think of home runs in baseball, and the fan’s mind races to the mammoth distances a ball can fly when slugged right on the nose, or a history-making chase that captivates a nation.

Of lesser interest, the ol’ reliable wood bat itself.

That was, of course, until Paul Goldschmidt and Cody Bellinger hit back-to-back homers for the New York Yankees last Saturday to open a nine-homer barrage. Victus Sports, known as much for their vibrant bats painted as pencils or the Phillie Phanatic dressed as a King’s Guard, had three employees at the game and they started a text thread where they hinted to those back home that, perhaps more than home runs were taking off.

Business was about to boom, too.

Victus spent most of the last 14 years trying to help shape the future of baseball. The company’s founders just never imagined that shape would resemble a bowling pin.

“It was the most talked about thing about bats that we ever experienced,” Victus co-founder Jared Smith said.

Victus isn't the only company producing the bulgy bats, but they were among the first to list them for sale online after the Yankees' made them the talk of the sports world. The torpedo bat took the league by storm in only 24 hours, and days later, the calls and orders, and test drives -- from big leaguers to rec leaguers -- are humming inside the company’s base, in a northwest suburb of Philadelphia.

“The amount of steam that it’s caught, this quickly, that’s certainly surprising,” Smith said. “If the Yankees hitting nine home runs in a game doesn’t happen, this doesn’t happen.”

Victus was stamped this season as the official bat of Major League Baseball and business was already good: Phillies slugger Bryce Harper is among the stars who stick their bats on highlight reels.

But that torpedo-looking hunk of lumber? It generated about as much interest last season in baseball as a .200 hitter. Victus made its first torpedoes around 2024 spring training when the Yankees reached out about crafting samples for their players. Victus, as dialed-in as anyone in the bat game, only made about a dozen last season, and about a dozen more birch or maple bats this spring.

This week alone, try hundreds of torpedoes.

“Every two minutes, another one comes out of the machine,” Smith said.

Who knew there would be a baseball bat craze?

On a good day, Victus makes 600-700 bats, but the influx of pro orders -- the company estimates at least half of every starting lineup uses Victus or Marucci bats -- has sent production into overdrive. The creation of a typical bat is usually a two-day process, but one can be turned around without a finish in about 20 minutes. Victus crafted rush-order bats Monday morning for a few interested Phillies and dashed to Citizens Bank Park for delivery moments before first pitch. All-Star third baseman Alec Bohm singled with one.

Stott tested bats at the Marucci hit lab down in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, churning through styles until the company found the right fit.

“They connect all these wires to you, and you swing 1,000 bats,” Stott said. “And they kind of tell you where you’re hitting the ball mostly.”

Here’s the surprising part of the torpedo bat: For all its early hype, the bat is no rookie in the game.

The lethal lumber has been used by some sluggers in baseball for at least a year or two only, well, no one really noticed. Giancarlo Stanton and Francisco Lindor used torpedoes last season. Other players experimented with it and no one — not the bulk of other players or journalists or fans — ever really picked up on the newfangled advance in hitting innovation.

Smith said only “a few baseball junkies” inquired about the bats.

“I think it’s just one of those things that until you’re looking for it, you might not see it,” Smith said. “Now when you look at pictures, you’re like, oh yeah, it’s a torpedo.”

Aaron Leanhardt, a former Yankees front-office staffer who now works for the Miami Marlins, was credited as the one who developed the torpedo barrel to bring more mass to a bat’s sweet spot.

A member of Victus’ parent company, Marucci Sports, worked with Leanhardt in a Louisiana branch of their hit lab last year to get the bat off the ground and into the hands of big leaguers.

“I think getting past the shape being different was the hardest barrier,” Smith said. “Then the team goes out and hits those home runs like they did and everyone is willing to try it.”

Before last weekend, Victus had no plans to mass produce the bat, making it only available to professionals.

Now, Smith said, “I think it’s our job to kind of educate the public in what’s out there.”

The odd shape off the bat — like making a sausage, the meat is simply pushed down the casing — has little to no effect at Victus on the dynamics of making a baseball bat. The cost is the same as a standard bat, too, with a sticker price starting at around $200. Only the slogan is punched up: Get your hands on the most-talked about bat in the game.

There's not enough data yet to truly know how much oomph — or hits and homers — a torpedo bat may help some hitters. Cincinnati's Elly De La Cruz picked one up for the first time Monday and had a single, double and two home runs for a career-high seven RBIs.

Not all hitters are believers —- or at least feel like they need to tinker with their lumber.

Yankees slugger Aaron Judge, who hit an AL-record 62 homers in 2022 and 58 last year en route to his second AL MVP award, declined to try the new bat, asking, “Why try to change something?” Phillies All-Star shortstop Trea Turner said the hoopla was “blown out of proportion.”

“You’ve still got to hit the ball,” Turner said.

Turner, though, said he was open to trying the torpedo.

“For bats to be the hot topic out in the zeitgeist is cool,” Smith said. “It’s kind of like our time to shine, in a way.”

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb