Monastery throws switch on green initiatives
By: DAVE DOWNEY - Staff Writer
Deer Park expects to supply all its electricity with solar panels | Monday, February 11, 2008 11:54 AM PST ∞
Buddhist monk Ven Phuoc Tinh, Ven meaning elder brother, sprinkles water on a new array of solar panels during a ceremony to clense the panels and to ask the land's plants, animals, and ancestors permission to use the sun for energy before switching the panels on at the Deer Park Monastery north of Escondido on Sunday. The monastery installed three arrays of solar panels that will supply 100 percent of the electricity used there.
HAYNE PALMOUR IV Staff Photographer
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ESCONDIDO ---- With the flip of a switch Sunday, a secluded monastery tucked away in the brush-and-oak-covered canyons north of this city's downtown began producing its own energy.
Deer Park Monastery's new 66-kilowatt, sun-powered electricity system will provide virtually all the electricity required to keep the lights on and air conditioners humming in its living quarters, meditation hall, dining hall and offices.
The solar panels are just one of many environmental efforts under way at the Buddhist monastery.
In the past year, the monks and nuns have retrofitted three 1980s-era, diesel-powered Mercedes cars to run on 100-percent vegetable oil. They voluntarily park all their vehicles on Tuesdays. And they have installed a system they call Earth Tub that slowly breaks down the monastery's food scraps and turns it into compost, which later is used to fertilize the monastery's lush gardens.
Brother Stream, a 32-year-old monk from Connecticut whose given name is Douglas Bachman, said the residents do not view any of the green initiatives as painful, obligatory sacrifices.
"That is exactly not what we are doing," said Brother Stream, wearing a traditional Vietnamese straw hat. "The earth is a beautiful place, and it's a joy to make the Earth a more beautiful place."
Off the grid
Only on the hottest days will the Buddhist monks and nuns who live on the quiet, 440-acre campus have to supplement the power generated by their three sets of solar panels with electricity from San Diego Gas & Electric Co., residents say.
The few times they need extra power, they should be able to obtain it, in essence, for free. That's because utilities credit solar-powered customers for the surplus electricity they put into the regional system, and Deer Park plans to send a lot of it back to the San Diego County grid.
On the other hand, there won't be any rebates coming. Under California law, utilities do not have to reimburse customers if, say, at the end of a year, they return more power to the grid than they take out.
Extraordinary example
Bob Noble, chairman of the California Center for Sustainable Energy in San Diego, praised the initiative.
"The level of commitment is extraordinary," Noble said. He founded Envision Solar, a La Jolla company specializing in shaded solar panels for parking lots.
Noble said the monastery's solar system would generate enough electricity to power 15 North County homes, while keeping "many hundreds of tons" of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
"That's not just for them," Noble said. "That's for the community, that's for the state and that's for the world."
A large majority of climate scientists believe that increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are warming the planet by trapping heat, similar to the way heat is trapped in a greenhouse.
Electricity generation produces a quarter of the state total's carbon dioxide emissions, according to the California Air Resources Board.
Dennis Howard, a lay Buddhist practitioner who lives at the rural retreat and helped launch the green initiative, said the monastery had planned initially to build a larger solar system, on the order of 78 kilowatts. But Deer Park curbed its energy appetite by replacing light bulbs in its buildings with modern, efficient ones and scaled back the project.
"We discovered that we could conserve an extraordinary amount of energy," Howard said. "We had numerous archaic light fixtures in our dorms and in our kitchens."
Saving green by going green
Howard said the cost for the solar project came to $700,000. He said the monastery didn't have to foot the entire bill, as it received a state grant of about $180,000 to offset a portion of the cost.
"If we didn't have that contribution from the state, it would have been a really difficult decision to make," Howard said, adding the monastery will pay off its investment in 6 to 13 years in savings on electric bills.
But saving money wasn't the driving force behind the project, he said.
"Our purpose is to clean up our global footprint," said Noble. "We also want to be a motivator for others in the community."
Brother Bernard Ziegler, 37, a German monk said, "We're doing it because we think it is the right thing to do environmentally."
Deer Park monks stressed that living in harmony with nature is something its founder, the prominent Buddhist teacher and Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, promotes.
"We are not separate," Brother Bernard said. "We all connected with everyone and everything. If we take care of the environment, we take care of ourselves."
Aromatic emissions
Every day but Tuesday ---- a day when Deer Park residents only take the wheel in emergencies ---- the exhaust out of their biodiesel-retrofitted car tailpipes smells like French fries.
"Instead of smelling like diesel fumes, they smell like a kitchen cooking," Howard said.
The Mercedes cars ---- a sedan and two station wagons ---- take a while to warm up. And they are a tad on the noisy side, with their rhythmic knocking.
But they work fine, Howard said.
"It feels good not to be using oil or coal," said Brother Bernard.
"And we like buying used cars because that is another form of recycling," Howard added.
As for the Earth Tub, it is sort of the final product of much trial and error going back five years.
"We have tried and tried and tried to do composting here," Howard said. "And we have had all kinds of practical difficulties with it."
More to come
In the early days, the monastery residents put kitchen garbage directly on the ground to dry up and decompose in the sun. That didn't go so well. Howard said the piles put out an awful smell and were magnets for rodents. And with the rodents came rattlesnakes.
Eventually, though, Deer Park solved the problems. San Diego County recycling officials loaned the monastery an enclosed, 3-cubic-yard-capacity tub several months ago. And it effectively ---- without a stinging, unpleasant odor ---- breaks down the scraps.
In the future, the monastery plans to launch still more green initiatives.
One project already is in the works. The monks and nuns are preparing to replace the thirsty ice plants that line a steep hill behind a dining hall and the exotic tropical trees planted around a reflective pool with drought-resistant native vegetation.
For more information about the monastery's environmental efforts, go to
http://www.deerparkmonastery.org/no_car_day/greener_deerpark.html.
Contact staff writer Dave Downey at (760) 745-6611, Ext. 2623, or ddowney@nctimes.com.
