Solar Power helps LA go green with clean solar power

MILL VALLEY, USA: Solar Power Partners Inc. (SPPTM), America’s premier independent solar power producer, today officially announced that several of its solar energy facilities in the Los Angeles area are in full commercial operation and generating electricity.

The solar energy facilities include a 238.68 kW system at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena; a 601.02 kW system at BT’s North America corporate headquarters offices in El Segundo; and Safeway Inc.’s Vons grocery stores in Monrovia (230.09 kW), Oxnard (187.53 kW), Corona (204.82 kW), and Murrieta (198.17 kW).

Each solar facility was financed and developed using a solar Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), a long-term energy financing solution that helps customers go green without the hassles or costs of solar facility ownership, operations, or maintenance.

A solar PPA allows SPP’s host customers to pay only for the energy produced by the system, while SPP, alone and/or through its subsidiaries, develops, operates, and maintains the system for the length of the agreement, usually over twenty years. SPP’s host customers can enjoy predictable energy rates for the life of their agreement.

“Thanks to our partnership with Solar Power Partners, BT is now not only significantly reducing carbon emissions -- we’re realizing reduced power costs for our site as well as helping our company fulfill its very ambitious corporate social responsibility goals,” said Jon Reiter, Senior Director, Major Transactions, BT Americas.

As noted by Bill Irwin, Senior Director of Facility Management at Caltech, “SPP’s experience making solar power attainable for schools and universities makes for a great long-term partnership.”

“SPP is proud to be a part of solar energy initiatives by leading corporations and universities in the greater Los Angeles Area, the regional market with possibly the greatest potential for distributed commercial solar applications throughout America. Our projects with Caltech, BT, and Safeway are excellent examples of how solar Power Purchase Agreements enable entities to embrace solar energy without any of the operational hassle of owning a power plant,” said Alexander v. Welczeck, President and CEO, Solar Power Partners.

SPP’s dedicated asset management team operates each facility using web-based monitoring technology, which provides performance data every 15 minutes and operation alerts as necessary. SPP manages all aspects of preventative maintenance and repairs when needed.

The Caltech solar system features a 238.68 kW sized fixed rooftop array on the Holliston parking garage. The system’s estimated annual solar-generated electricity eliminates 527,000 pounds of CO2 emissions from the air, which is equivalent to removing 46 cars from operation, planting 72 acres of trees, or powering 38 average homes annually.

The system at BT’s office building in El Segundo is a 601 kW fixed rooftop and elevated system, including a tracking system over the main parking lot. The tracking modules move during the day to follow the sun, thereby increasing energy production. The system is expected to generate approximately one million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of renewable electricity each year, which will reduce carbon emissions by 700,000 pounds (more than 316 metric tons) annually, helping the company fulfill its global goals for sustainability.

The four Safeway stores in Monrovia, Oxnard, Corona, and Murrieta total 820.61 kW in size, and are all fixed rooftop systems. Combined, these systems are estimated to produce enough solar-generated electricity to eliminate 973 metric tons of CO2 emissions from the air, or to power 88.5 average homes annually, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency calculator.

Financing of the solar facilities was partially provided by Bank of America in the form of a tax equity investment and Energy Investors Funds through their United States Power Fund III, L.P.