PV System at the North Point Facility

Solar power went on line at both the Wastewater Enterprise North Point Facility and the City Distribution Division (CDD) Yard on December 27, 2007, providing these two municipal facilities with clean and renewable energy.

The two new solar arrays use a photovoltaic process to convert sunlight directly into electrical energy. The North Point Facility now sports solar arrays containing a total of 1236 solar panels with a peak output of 241 kilowatts (kW) on two roofs. The installation on the CDD warehouse building needed to be lightweight to accommodate structural limitations so that roof was blanketed with thin roofing membranes containing solar photovoltaic cells. The CDD solar system produces a peak output of 134 kW. To facilitate the cleaning and maintenance of these roof-mounted solar arrays, the projects included the addition of waterproof electrical outlets and hose bibs to each roof.

The Power Enterprise staff expects to obtain California solar rebates of $520,000 for North Point and $280,000 for CDD. SFPUC staff training and final commissioning of these two solar systems were completed at the end of January.

The North Point and CDD solar systems join previous installations at Moscone Center, the Southeast Water Pollution Control Plant, Pier 96, San Francisco International Airport and other City buildings for a total of more than two megawatts of renewable solar energy installed. That’s enough to power more than 1700 typical San Francisco homes. And, with an expansion of the Pier 96 installation and a new installation at Sunset Reservoir in the works, the Power Enterprise is planning to more than triple that total in the next year!

Solar array at the City Distribution Division Yard