Date of Award

Spring 2026

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Santa Clara : Santa Clara University, 2026

Department

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering

First Advisor

Vito Francioso

Second Advisor

Rachel He

Third Advisor

Hisham Said

Abstract

The Cal Centre Distribution Center is a proposed 4,000,000 square foot, four (4) warehouses total, e-commerce warehouse and logistics facility located along Interstate 5 (the I-5) in Kern County, California. The site occupies a very strategic location for overall distribution logistics of the Western United States being close to the Port of Los Angeles allowing for 65,000,000 people to be reached within a two (2) day truck turn. The site also addresses the local economic needs of Kern County and the greater Bakersfield area. Ranking as one of the highest functional unemployment rates among cities, this site will provide approximately 1,700 jobs to the local population in order to run at full capacity.

A defining feature of the Cal Centre site is its independence from any municipality utility infrastructure. The site operates as a fully isolated microgrid, combining three (3) fuel cells with ground and foot solar arrays. The site is able to generate 440 Megawatt-hours (MWh) per day at peak conditions, meeting the 207 MWh per day site demand. The energy surplus is divided between electrical vehicle (EV) charging expansion, additional battery reserves, and water system reliability. Water independence was achieved using deep groundwater wells which feed a reverse osmosis system producing approximately 100,000 gallons of potable water per day. A membrane bioreactor is able to treat wastewater for reuse in bathrooms and landscape irrigation. These systems allow for the site to produce, treat, and recycle all its energy and water on site, eliminating the need for municipality tie-ins.

The overall project was split into five (5) integrated scopes: materials, site sustainability, structural design, land development, and project management in order to design the most sustainable and effective site while limiting cost and promoting feasibility. Together, these five (5) scopes allowed the Cal Centre Distribution Center to be designed to meet modern performance and sustainability standards while delivering benefits to the greater Western United States and the Bakersfield region.

Across the five (5) different engineering scopes, the Cal Centre Distribution Center demonstrates that large scale developments such as this are able to be responsibly designed while emphasizing sustainability and long-term resilience. Upfront investment in the off-grid energy systems and water systems, utilization of sustainable materials, and EV-read infrastructure all provide benefits over the life of the facility including lower operational costs, minimizing environmental impact, and setting the site up to meet changing regulatory and energy demand of California.

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