San Francisco Solar Power
The new San Francisco solar power plant is set to contribute further to California's green credentials with the installation of a 5 MW installation of solar panels to be built within the city boundaries. The urban power station will be built on top of the Sunset reservoir, pictured to the right. There will be 25,000 photovoltaic modules installed at this location, which will provide enough electricity to power roughly 1000 homes.Since the electricity is being generated by the city it is likely to be used by municipal facilities like hospitals, schools and the like. The power generated at the site will of course be fed into the main grid, but this will not result in any change in electricity prices for home owners. The facility is to be built and maintained by a local company called Recurrent Energy. Recurrent Energy will cover the initial costs of construction and recoup their money in the long term. The city has agreed to buy the electricity generated at this facility from Recurrent at a fixed price of 23.5 cents per kilowatt hour. This is expected to total up to $2 million each year. This rate comes with a fixed annual increase of 3% per year to cover inflation. This rate is set for a minimum of seven years. The total cost of construction for the project is estimated at around the $85 million mark. Recurrent Energy is eligible for the federal tax incentives which will reduce the cost to the company to about $40 million, making it a viable proposition. The reason the city did not build this power plant themselves was because of lack of eligibility for the tax incentives. Every step toward cleaner energy generation is to be applauded. The long term nature of the commitment taken by the city of San Francisco to this project is a move in the right direction to make tomorrow's world a cleaner one.
Return from San Francisco Solar to Solar Power News or return to the Green Planet home page for more Solar Power Facts.
|
