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The University of California, Davis and SunPower plan to build a 16 MW, ground-mounted solar power plant that is expected to generate 14% of UC Davis' electricity needs. The university anticipates that more than one-third of total electricity demand on campus will be served from carbon neutral energy sources. On completion, the project will be the largest solar power installation in the University of California system, and the largest solar power plant to offset the electricity demand of a U.S. university or college campus.
The plant, to be built on a 70-acre site south of Interstate 80, will be owned and operated by SunPower, which will also design and construct the project. The plant will improve the University's ability to accurately budget for electricity costs, and UC Davis anticipates that it will provide an effective long-term hedge against future utility rate increases.
"SunPower's first project on the UC Davis campus included the design and construction of 4 MW of high efficiency SunPower technology to power the UC Davis West Village neighborhood, the nation's largest net-zero community," said Howard Wenger, SunPower president.
SunPower will install its SunPower® Oasis® Power Plant technology at the site, which uses single-axis tracking technology to position high efficiency solar panels to track the sun throughout the day, increasing energy capture by up to 25% over fixed-tilt solar technology. The technology includes robotic panel cleaning capability that reduces water usage by approximately 90% over traditional cleaning methods.
The project is designed to generate 33 million kW/h of electricity per year, compared to total campus electricity use of 228 million kW/h in 2013-14. It is expected to reduce the campus' carbon footprint by an estimated 9% when being completed in 2015.
"UC Davis's greenhouse gas emissions are lower today than they were five years ago despite campus growth," said Sid England, assistant vice chancellor for environmental stewardship and sustainability at UC Davis. "Adding the new solar project will help continue this remarkable trend and supports President Napolitano's initiative to be carbon neutral by 2025."
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