Report: Kings County tops in industrial solar

Seth Nidever

July 21, 2016

HANFORD — Kings County has one of the highest per-capita industrial solar power capacities in the state, according to clean energy report released by Next 10.

The San Francisco-based think tank's 64-page report, entitled the 2016 California Green Innovation Index, found that Kings County boasts the "most commercial and industrial solar energy on a per-capita basis" out of 26 areas the report studied in the state.

The areas studied include Fresno, Bakersfield, Merced and Madera.

Since 2010, large-scale solar panel installations have proliferated around Kings County, mostly on marginal farm ground that is no longer in production.

Since 2014, the pace of industrial solar project application in Kings has been two-to-three major projects a year, according to Senior Planner Chuck Kinney.

"It's been pretty consistent," he said.

Kings County has almost 10,500 acres of solar panel projects that have either been constructed or are in the Kings County Community Development Agency pipeline, according to the agency's latest numbers.

The total capacity is more than 1,000 megawatts.

If fully constructed, that would be enough to power 250,000 homes, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.

These installations generate power for the utilities that goes onto the state's power grid.

On a smaller scale, but still considerably larger than residential roof-top solar installations, several local dairies have put in arrays in the one-megawatt range to offset increasing pumping costs.

The clean energy categories where Kings County scored lower on the report were on the level of individual consumers or entrepreneurs.

Kings ranked last in clean vehicle rebates. The state's Clean Vehicle Rebate Project offers residents up to $6,500 for the purchase or lease of a new, eligible zero-emissions or plug-in hybrid vehicle. There's currently a waiting list of applicants.

The number of clean vehicle rebates issued to residents in Kings dropped 36 percent from 2014 to 2015, according to the report.

Kings ranked second-to-last in the category of green technology patents.

The county did better in one category: Commute times.

It had the fifth-shortest commute time out of the 26 areas studied. Fresno ranked fourth.

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