Stockton water system is going solar

STOCKTON

February 9, 2016 6:18am

•  Stockton East Water District to install 2.2 megawatts of power

•  “We're expecting to save more than $9.5 million with this project”

Stockton East Water District, which serves the Stockton urban area along with farms and ranches east of the city, is going solar to save money.

SunEdison Inc. (NYSE: SUNE) of Belmont, has signed a solar power purchase agreement to build a 2.2 megawatt solar system on the water district's property. By going solar, the district expects to save more than $9.5 million on energy costs over the next 20 years and 20 million gallons of water annually.

"On average it takes more than four gallons of water to generate each kilowatt-hour of electricity in California. By going solar, we're able to reduce water use by 99 percent, saving approximately 20 million gallons of water each year,” says Sam Youneszadeh, SunEdison's regional general manager of its Western U.S. solar business.

With SunEdison's solar power purchase agreement, the water district has no up-front cost. SunEdison installs, owns, and operates each system while the district buys the solar electricity at lower rates than offered by their local utility.

"We're expecting to save more than $9.5 million with this project,” says Scot Moody, Stockton East Water District's general manager.

The solar systems are expected to generate enough energy to offset approximately 50 percent of the electricity used at the facility. That same amount of electricity could power 650 Californian homes a year. The system also avoids the emission of more than 50 million pounds of carbon dioxide over 20 years.

SunEdison intends to complete the solar system in 2016. Operation and maintenance of the solar systems will be performed by SunEdison Services.

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