City of Perris
The Challenge
Motivated to reduce its energy use and significantly decrease its greenhouse gas emissions, the City of Perris contracted with Honeywell Building Solutions to develop an energy and environmental conservation program. The program goals were to include a large solar project to increase energy efficiency across several city buildings.
The Solution
SPG Solar designed custom dual-purpose solar carports that would provide shading for over 240 vehicles while producing powerful, clean energy, keeping in line with the city’s mission-style architecture. The system required 2,176 Sharp solar panels installed on the roofs of the carports at five sites: the Perris library, senior center, fire house, corporate yard and city hall.
The solar portion of the program was set up through a power purchase agreement. Under the agreement, Honeywell will maintain the solar carports and sell the electricity they produce to the city for the next 20 years. Along with the solar carports, Honeywell will improve city facilities with energy conservation measures such as lighting retrofits, high-efficiency heating and cooling units, and programmable thermostats.
SPG Solar installed the proprietary SunSpot® monitoring system so residents and visitors can monitor the solar production via the city’s website (www.cityofperris.org) or community access kiosks located at the library and city hall.
Noteworthy Achievements
- The League of California Cities – Helen Putnam Award for Excellence in Planning and Environmental Quality
- Urban Land Institute – Financial Times Sustainable Cities Award Finalist
- American Planning Association – Innovation in Green Community Planning Award
The Benefits
- Insulates the city from energy price hikes over the life of the systems
- Utility rebates from Southern California Edison paid for nearly 30% of the system’s cost
- A 30% Federal Tax Incentive of the purchase price further reduced the system’s overall cost
- By taking advantage of California’s Net Energy Metering (NEM) program, the systems will send surplus energy back to the power grid, thus offsetting net annual energy costs
The Green Line
The solar carports are expected to produce over 370 kilowatts of electricity, enough energy to power about 100 homes per year and cover 20 percent of the city’s electricity needs. The solar energy generated at the City of Perris combined with the city’s overall conservation program will offset 960,000 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) from being released into the atmosphere each year by fossil-fuel power plants. According to the U.S. Dept. of Energy, it takes 99 acres of trees one year to absorb 960,000 pounds of CO2.