Fresno to Become the Nation’s Solar Belt
The Kings River Conservation District (KRCD) and San Francisco-based Cleantech America LLC announced plans to build an 80-megawatt solar plant in west Fresno County. The solar plant will be 640 acres. Cleantech is looking at five different sites in west Fresno County. According to the company the agreement is with the “recently formed San Joaquin Valley Power Authority (SJVPA).” Once built the plant will be the nation’s largest solar plant.
Cleantech also announced plans to build a 5-megawatt solar plant in the Fresno County town of Mendota. The plant will be 40 acres, and will be completed in 2009. Cleantech says the plant will provide “clean, reliable peak solar energy to PG&E customers throughout northern and central California.”
The Fresno Yosemite International Airport will install what the Fresno Bee reports as “the largest solar power system of any airport in the country.” WorldWater & Power Corp., located in will own and operate the two-megawatt system.
California State University, Fresno announced construction began on a “solar panel-topped parking structure system.” Chevron Energy Solutions is building the parking structure which “will be the largest of its kind at any university in the United States.” The parking structure will convert solar energy into 1 megawatt of electricity, and supply 20 percent of the university’s electricity.
“Solar power is an important resource in the global energy portfolio… Fresno State is demonstrating that clean, renewable power is commercially viable and growing in demand,” said Jim Davis, president of Chevron Energy Solutions.
“Fresno can become the nation’s premier solar city…Fresno was built upon its abundant sunshine and long sunny days. Let’s start putting that sun to use not just on the farm but in growing our city, as well. Let’s make Fresno the state’s solar power leader,” Fresno County Board of Supervisors member Henry Perea proclaimed in a June 2006 article for the website, FresnoFamous.com.
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