The newest news from world-leading semiconductor chip manufacturing Intel Corp., the inventor of the x86 microprocessor found in most PCs, is that its Folsom, California location will soon sport the largest of eight new solar power systems the company plans to install in four states.
Santa Clara, California-based Intel, which has U.S. facilities in Arizona, California, Colorado, D.C., Illinois, Mass., New Hampshire, New Mexico, N. Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, S. Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Washington State, will install solar energy systems in California, Oregon, Arizona and New Mexico, for a total of 2.5 megawatts, but the largest solar system – 1+ megawatts of rated capacity – will be at the Folsom location.
In fact, the Folsom installation will provide up to 7 percent of the Folsom campuses electricity needs, from a six-acre ground array at the southwest corner of Intel’s property, between Highway 50 and Iron Point Road, making it one of the largest, non-utility-scale ground-mounted arrays in the state.
Folsom is also the only location that doesn’t involve rooftop solar, and the facility – which employs 6,000 people – hopes to break ground in March, with electricity being generated by the end of June. The installer of record for the Folsom location is Foster City-based SolarCity Corp.
SolarCity, founded in 2006, recently struck a deal with California utility PG&E to finance about 1,000 solar systems, at a cost of about $60 million, through the utility’s financing arm, Pacific Venture Capital. SolarCity is the largest residential solar installer in California, and also operates in Colorado, Arizona and Oregon.
SolarCity, through innovative programs like SolarLease™, PurePower™ and Commercial Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), makes it possible for homeowners and businesses to opt into clean, renewable solar power without the sometimes huge upfront costs involved in purchasing systems, and often for less than the aforementioned entities pay their local utility for electricity.
The installations are, according to Intel VP and General Manager Brian Krzanich, a way not only to reduce the company’s carbon footprint, but to invest heavily enough in the technology that it drives down prices and spurs wider adoption by both businesses and homeowners.
Intel, which in late 2009 settled with chip maker AMD over a cross-licensing dispute, supplies about 80 percent of the PC microprocessor chips worldwide, and profits on a mega-scale, making one wonder why solar systems aren’t sprouting from the roofs (or in the parking lots) of all Intel locations.
Come to that, why did Intel choose Oregon over Colorado, for example, where solar irradiance values are at least one point higher than in Oregon, and the average yearly hours of sunlight are almost double?