What Happened?
The town of Danville, California, expects to save $4.4 million in energy costs over a 25-year period, by ostensibly leasing or “pre-paying” for four solar power arrays.
Who Cares?
Cities and towns across the country are looking for creative ways to cut energy costs without making massive financial outlays. The Danville example provides an easily replicable model that is already in place in other west-coast cities.
The Details
Danville, which is considered a suburb of both Oakland and San Francisco, is one of the wealthiest communities in America. The town’s power-purchase agreement will install solar power arrays at four different locations: the Town Service Center, the Town Offices, Diablo Vista Park, and Sycamore Valley Park.
According to reports, the town will pay $1.2 million to have the arrays installed. San Mateo-based SolarCity will install, operate and maintain the arrays for 25 years. The $1.2 million “pre-payments” plan was apparently cheaper than simply purchasing the arrays.
While the city will purchase some of the electricity, the arrays will mostly offset electricity purchased from PG&E.
The Savings
The town expects to save nearly $200,00 each year from its electricity bill for the four sites; savings over the 25-year life of the facility should exceed $4 million. The four arrays will also prevent 192 tons of carbon dioxide. According to the town’s own newsletter, the project will start this month (October, 2012) and be finished in January.
Other Programs
According to SolarCity, programs similar to the Danville installation are in place elsewhere around the country. Lancaster, California, for example, expects to save $7 million over the next 15 years, and—like Danville—the city of Sacramento has four solar sites live now. A downloadable datasheet on the Sacramento project is available, as is a case study on Lancaster.
More Information
If you’d like additional information on the Danville project, feel free to contact Danville’s City Engineer Steve Lake via email, or at 925-314-3319. If you’d like to speak with someone at SolarCity, please fill out this form for municipalities (under “Your Business,” simply enter the name of your city, and select Government under the “Business Type” pulldown menu).