Press Room
Country's First Solar Wastewater Treatment Plant to be Unveiled in Northern California
The Sewerage Commission Oroville Region Announces 520 Kilowatt System
Oroville, CA, USA (August 13, 2002) – The Sewerage Commission-Oroville Region (SCOR) announced today that its wastewater treatment plant, now powered entirely by the public utility grid, will be converted to 80% solar energy, making it the first predominately solar wastewater treatment plant in the U.S. A massive 520 kilowatt solar photovoltaic (PV) system to be installed by SPG Solar, Inc. (SPG) of San Rafael, California will supply most of the plant’s electrical needs.
A groundbreaking for the new solar array will be held at 4:00 PM on Wednesday August 21, at the Sewerage Commission-Oroville Region plant, 2880 South Fifth Ave., Oroville, Calif. For more information call Ray Sousa, Superintendent of SCOR, at (530) 534-0353 or SPG at (415) 459-4201.
The plant serves 15,000 families and numerous industries daily in the greater Oroville area north of Sacramento. The SCOR treatment plant treats approximately 1.2 billion gallons of wastewater annually. The power generated from the solar array will provide enough electricity to treat 80% of the wastewater. The plant’s pioneering solar array will save the district hundreds of thousands of dollars each year in electrical costs and help avoid large rate hikes in the future.
The 520 kW system, which will go online in November, is also the largest dual-tilt solar PV array in the world and the fifth largest solar energy system in the U.S, at the time of installation. SCOR will be the only wastewater treatment plant in the U.S. to be powered primarily by the sun, and will become a model for similar public utility projects across the country. The PV array will produce enough electricity to supply the equivalent of 200 average homes.
The 520 kW array, designed and installed by SPG, is composed of PV panels that convert sunlight directly into electricity. The panels will be mounted in a 3-acre field next to the SCOR wastewater treatment plant on dual-tilt supports. With dual-tilt, a concept developed by SPG, photovoltaic panels are manually tilted up in the fall and down in the spring to maximize exposure to sunlight throughout the year for greater power-gathering efficiency.
Over the last two years SCOR saw its energy costs skyrocket by 41%. Normally electric bill increases would be passed on to SCOR’s ratepayers in the form of higher sewer bills. Instead, costs to SCOR’s customers will be stabilized thanks to the solar facility. The wastewater plant runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and has a critical need to gain control of ever-increasing electric energy costs.
It was the consensus of the SCOR Board of Commissioners that SCOR will gain true independence from the grid during daylight hours with the solar power installation. The commissioners feel that it will provide the power needed to serve the community, without having to send a larger bill to the rate-paying customers.
"The SCOR installation shows what solar is really capable of," said Dan Thompson, founder, president and CEO of SPG. "It can power a critical utility for an entire district, pay for itself in a few years, save money and do it cleanly."
About SCOR
SCOR’s 60-acre wastewater treatment plant is designed to treat 6.5 million gallons of wastewater a day and serves 15,000 families and numerous industries in the greater Oroville area north of Sacramento, which includes the city of Oroville and outlying rural areas. Oroville is located near the Lake Oroville State Recreation Area, the Feather River and Plumas National Forest in historic Gold Rush country in the Sierra Nevada foothills.
How Solar Works
Solar energy systems consist of three components: PV panels, inverters and a performance monitor. PV panels convert sunlight into DC (direct current) electricity. The inverters change the DC into AC (alternating current), the same power supplied by electric utilities. The AC is distributed through a building's electric service panel and flows to outlets, lights and switches. The performance monitor shows the amount of power the system is generating at any time to verify production. Solar is a clean and renewable form of electricity generation. PV systems generally have no moving parts (with the exception of solar tracking systems), is silent, and produces zero emissions - air, ground or water.
About SPG Solar, Inc.
SPG is the industry's most experienced developer, designer, and installer of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems for homes, businesses, and large-scale commercial and government facilities. SPG's commitment is to build the highest-performing solar PV systems with the highest return on investment. The result is clean, reliable electricity that reduces or eliminates customers' electric utility costs. SPG has installed over 500 solar systems in California, including the Potrero Hill Head Start in San Francisco, and Westmont High School in Campbell, California. Major projects include the Vallejo Police and Fire headquarters, Vallejo, Calif., and the 520 kW system for the Sewerage Commission-Oroville Region. SPG is a licensed and bonded California General B, Solar C-46 and Electrical C-10 Contractor, License #759086.