The West Valley College District, with two campuses in Mission and Saratoga, California, is spending $8.7 million per campus to install solar photovoltaic panels to help lower the cost of electricity and show its support for clean, renewable solar energy.
Funding for the projects will come partly from Measure H, a $235-million bond measure approved in 2004 by 60 percent of voters.
Another portion will come from the Internal Revenue Service, via Clean Energy Renewable bonds, $2.5 million of which has already been approved for Saratoga, with the Mission portion approval expected any day after some confusion in which the IRS rejected the application, thinking it was a duplicate of the Saratoga application.
If both arrays, destined for parking lots at the two campuses, are approved, the West Valley College District expects to save as much as $1 million annually on utility bills.
At Saratoga, 150,000 square feet of solar panels on top of new carports in the north parking lot are expected to generate a full megawatt of solar energy, or one-third of the electricity used at the campus, which serves 12,000 students. The installation will be completed in the summer of 2011.
The 1-megawatt system will provide enough electricity, in California’s sunny climate, to power about 800 homes. This is the equivalent of removing 1,167 cars from the road, or preserving 58 acres of forest.
The Mission campus will duplicate the installation, once funding through the IRS is approved, and the installation – which should be completed in 18 months, will save another estimated $400,000 in energy costs.
Clean Energy Renewable Bonds, or CREBs, is a program created in 2005 as part of the Energy Policy Act, and authorizes state and local governments, electric cooperatives, renewable energy bond lenders and Native American tribal governments to issue renewable energy bonds to finance specific clean energy and “clean” coal facilities.
The program, extended to Dec. 31 through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (2009), authorizes up to $2.4 million in bond funds for solar, wind, biomass and hydroelectric projects.
The West Valley College District expects to recover the unfunded costs of each solar system ($3.7 million) in about 15 years, based on current and projected energy costs through regional utility Pacific Gas & Electric, or PG&E.
In addition, the Saratoga campus plans to offer a course in solar site planning, a job expected to pay $40,000 a year to start (as compared to solar installer jobs, which pay about $15 per hour).
Solar site planners are responsible for examining a client’s electricity bill, recommending an appropriately-sized solar system, examining the site (roof or ground) for a suitable location, and determining the alignment of said system (if fixed) to capture the maximum amount of solar insolation.