Feb 14 2011
The new 1.2 MW solar parking cover constructed and located at the California State University Bakersfield (CSUB) campus was officially inaugurated by the "Flip the Switch" ceremony recently.
Dr. Horace Mitchell, President of CSUB and Sun Edison, and auxiliary company of MEMC Electronic Materials hosted the function. The present installation is the eighth solar power installation carried out for CSU by SunEdison and all the installations aggregates to 4.3 MW of solar power generation.
The 1.2 MW solar parking canopy installations will produce around 1.6 million kWh of renewable energy in the first year of power production and will generate over 30 million kWh over the 20 year life period of the system. The solar system will generate enough power to meet around 25 to 30% power requirement of CSUB. The installation is carried out with no investment from the university. The Solar Power Service Agreement (SPSA) reached between CSUB and SunEdison enabled the University to have the installation without any investment. The University will buy the renewable energy generated by the system for a period of 20 years from SunEdison and will also retain the renewable energy credits accrued by the generation of clean power.
The system will generate enough energy to supply electricity to 3,100 average homes in the USA. In its anticipated that in the 20 years of operation, the solar parking canopy will offset generation of over 29 million pounds of carbon dioxide, which can be equated to removing 2,800 cars from the road.
Source: http://www.sunedison.com/