(From an article in the Berkeley Daily Planet by J. Douglas Allen-Taylor, published March 23, 2007).

A year ago, the Peralta Community College District held its first annual Sustainable Peralta Conference at its oldest and least environmentally friendly campus, Laney College, in typically blustery March weather. Sitting in a classroom that day with a gap under the doorway so large that participants had to wear coats to ward off the brisk wind blowing under the closed door, Peralta Trustee Nicky Gonzalez Yuen, chair of Chancellor Elihu Harris’ Advisory Committee on Sustainability and the driving force behind the Sustainable Peralta project, talked optimistically about moving future construction bond money in the district toward “green” building principles. At that time, Peralta’s newest campus—Berkeley City College—was not yet built, and its $390 million facilities bond Measure A was not yet on the ballot. Continue reading →

(Reposted from an article in the Daily Californian, written by By Farha Rizvi, published March 21, 2007)

In recognition of Berkeley City College’s energy-efficient designs, PG&E gave the school’s overseeing district a $120,226 rebate check Friday at the district’s second annual conference on sustainability.

The Peralta Community College District received the money through Savings By Design, a statewide program run by PG&E and other utility companies that encourages green design and construction, wrote district spokesperson Jeff Heyman in an e-mail. Continue reading →

Nicky's 3kw solar PV system (photo by Noah Berger for the New York Times)

In December of 2007, New York Times reporter Gregory Dicum wrote about the residential solar photovoltaics industry in California. He quoted Nicky (and other Bay Area residents) extensively his experience in getting a system installed on his turn-of-the-century duplex in Berkeley.

His comments and a picture of his home appeared in the article “Plugging Into the Sun” published in the Home & Garden section of the January 7, 2010 New York Times.

Excerpt from the article, written by Gregory Dicum:

“I more or less set it up and then I forgot about it,” said Nicky González Yuen, an instructor in political science at De Anza College in Cupertino, who hired a company called NextEnergy to install the modest three-kilowatt system in his 100-year-old Berkeley duplex. “I’m a really busy person, and I didn’t need to know that level of information.” Continue reading →