Kaiser Permanente, the biggest nonprofit health maintenance organization (HMO) in the country, said this week that it plans to install solar power systems at 15 of its California locations this year.
Kaiser, which operates primarily in California but also has locations in Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Ohio, and the Atlantic tri-state area (Virginia, D.C. and Maryland), provides medical care and peripheral services like mental health, hospice care, pharmaceuticals, dental care and wellness care to 8 million members.
The solar systems will be installed by San Francisco-based independent power producer Recurrent Energy, and the ultimate production capacity of 15 megawatts – or 10 percent of the electricity Kaiser uses across its service territory – will be fully operational by the summer of 2011, according to officials from both Kaiser and Recurrent.
Recurrent, which already has more than 1 gigawatt of distributed solar energy across North America and Europe, said the systems will comprise both roof- and ground-mounted solar photovoltaic systems, with panels being placed on, over or around parking spaces and garages as well.
As Kaiser’s Senior VP Raymond J. Baxter (PhD) pointed out, “green improvements that are good for the environment are also good for people’s health”, adding that such strategies lend credence to the company’s commitment to reducing its use of fossil fuels, slowing energy use growth over the next decade, and getting one-fourth of its power from renewables by 2020.
Prior to this commitment, Kaiser had already put a 50-kilowatt solar power installation at its Modesto Medical Center. Kaiser also uses strategies like “cool” roofs, permeable pavement, renewable, low-VOC rubber flooring and daylighting to diminish its eco-footprint.
Using a 20-year power purchase agreement, or PPA, Recurrent Energy will design, install and maintain the solar systems while Kaiser purchases the power at about the same rate it would have paid for equivalent amounts of electricity from the grid, or about $95.6 million. In spite of this, John Kouletsis, Kaiser’s strategy planning and design director, expects the PPA to save the company money over the life of the agreement.
Financing for the installations was provided by Citigroup, which is also an equity investor on some of the projects. Installations will begin in Vallejo and Santa Clara, as well as Kaiser’s medical supply distribution center in Livermore. The other 12 sites are all in Southern California.
