Gavin Newsom, Mayor of San Francisco in December 2008 praised the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) for approving a contract with the distributed power company Recurrent Energy Inc. (San Francisco, CA). According to the press release, the agreement was made on a photovoltaic (PV) installation with five megawatts (MW) of peak solar power atop the recently seismically-retrofitted Sunset Reservoir. The project, which is scheduled to be completed in 2010, is going to be California’s largest solar PV system and the nation’s largest municipal solar project, according to the press release. The project will increase total municipal solar generation of San Francisco by more than 300%, from the current 2 MW to a total of 7 MW of solar power.

"This is an exciting day for San Francisco and a major step for solar energy in California", said Mayor Newsom. "With this one large project on top of our largest City reservoir, we’re going to more than triple the amount of energy we generate from the sun and set a new standard for solar power in California."

25-year Power Purchase Agreement basis for public-private cooperation

"We applaud the forward-thinking approach of the City, the Mayor, and the SFPUC in making this landmark project possible", said Recurrent Energy’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Arno Harris. "We’re proud to play a part in San Francisco’s path to a clean energy future by building clean, onsite solar power plants exactly where they’re needed most." The PV system and the solar electricity it will generate will be developed and operated under a "Power Purchase Agreement" (PPA) between the SFPUC and Recurrent Energy. Under the terms of the contract, Recurrent will finance, design, build and operate solar energy projects and will provide all the energy generated to the SFPUC for a period of 25 years. The solar panels for the new project will be manufactured and supplied by Suntech Corporation (Wuxi, China).

Solar plant to be operated by Recurrent Energy, not City

The five MW of solar power are stipulated to help power other San Francisco public services and buildings, including streetlights, San Francisco General Hospital, Muni light rail and city schools. Previously, city-owned solar projects had been developed through a more traditional approach with the City contracting directly to design and build solar projects which are now owned and operated by the City. The PPA approach will allow the SFPUC to develop large-scale solar projects more rapidly, take advantage of federal tax credits not directly available to municipalities, and generate solar energy at a more cost-effective rate. "We’ve done a good job developing solar power in the City under more traditional City contracting methods", said SFPUC General Manager Ed Harrington. "But this innovative approach is an example of our efforts to dramatically accelerate and expand solar energy projects in the City on both municipal facilities like the Sunset Reservoir and on residential, commercial and nonprofit rooftops through our GoSolarSF solar energy incentive program."

2008-12-27 | Courtesy: San Francisco Communications and Public Outreach | solarserver.com © Heindl Server GmbH