A plan approved by San Francisco's board of supervisors clears the way for a 5-megawatt photovoltaic array that would triple the city's solar productivity. The energy it generates -- enough to power 1,000 homes -- will largely be used in government buildings like schools and municipal facilities.
Funding, construction and maintenance for the 25,000-panel array -- located in the Sunset Reservoir (the largest reservoir in the city) -- will be provided by San Francisco-based Recurrent Energy. The city will buy the energy it uses directly from the company for 23.5 cents per kilowatt-hour (about $2 million a year) and will have the option to buy the whole array after 7, 15 or 25 years for at least $33 million. Construction will begin this summer and is expected to finish by the end of next year.
Recurrent estimates that construction of the facility will cost about $40 million -- but the project could receive up to 30 percent of the cost in federal tax incentives. This eligibility -- saving the city as much as $45 million -- is one of the reasons the city decided to outsource construction and operation to a private company. It seemed like a golden opportunity to at least seven of the city's supervisors. The other four, who voted against the measure, expressed concern that the contract with Recurrent was too rigid and resistant to negotiation. There was also the worry that the cost of solar panels would drop substantially after the agreement.
The plant's approval comes a day after Pacific Gas & Electric's announcement that it has allocated $250,000 for grants to 23 California public schools as part of its Solar Schools program. Each school will receive up to $10,000 to educate students about solar energy, take field trips to renewable energy facilities and develop green practices. Actually using solar energy to power these schools could take renewable energy education to a new level.
While the new San Francisco array will be one of the largest municipal facilities in the U.S., it is still dwarfed by those in the works in Florida and Arizona.