The $100 million solar project, announced in June, will meet up to two-thirds of the campus's energy needs on sunny summer days. Twenty percent of the school's annual energy use will be provided by solar power generated by the 1-megawatt system.
And the system at UC-Merced will offset 45 million pounds of carbon emissions over the next three decades, the equivalent of removing 3,600 cars from California's roads.
Financing was arranged through a sale-leaseback with Wells Fargo and the project will be designed and installed by SunPower. The San Jose, California-based solar technology company arranges power purchase agreements for large institutional clients like UC-Merced; under a standard PPA, SunPower will build and own a solar power installation and sell the electricity it generates at a predetermined rate.
"Our relationship with Wells Fargo … streamlines the implementation of clean, renewable solar power for [our] large commercial and public customers throughout the U.S.," noted Mac Irvin, managing director of SunPower's structured finance group.
