Going solar -- Vallejo Police Dept is first in the Bay Area [Vallejo]
source: Vallejo News Tom Pendergast 2002.8.13 

VALLEJO - The Vallejo Police Department became the first in the Bay Area to let the sun shine in and power up its headquarters when it dedicated a new 31-kilowatt solar power facility Tuesday. "This is one of the first city buildings to be solar-powered," said Dan Thompson, president of Sun Power & Geothermal Energy Co., Inc. (SPG) and Geothermal Energy, the company that constructed the solar power system at a cost of $295,000. Thomson said he's 99 percent sure this is the first solar-powered police station in the Bay Area, as the "net-metering" system was only recently accepted by both the California Public Utilities Commission and PG&E. He added that there are only a couple of companies in the Bay Area capable of pulling off a job this big using the net metering system.

According to the city, the 300 solar panels arrayed on the roof of the city's vehicle maintenance garage behind police headquarters will generate 55,000 kilowatt hours of energy from the sun annually, at a savings of $15,000 to $18,000 a year -- money that won't be going into power company pockets. 

Aside from saving the city money, the panels are expected to provide backup power for the department's computer network in case of a blackout, and a large proportion of the power needed every day by the city's police dispatch center.

On particularly sunny days, any excess power not used by the station can be sold to the grid, so there's a possibility the panels could make a little cash for the city.

Mayor Anthony Intintoli said this is just the first of several renewable energy projects on which the city is embarking. There are plans in the works for a solar-powered fire station, a solar- and wind-powered water pumping station and solar arrays for City Hall and the John F. Kennedy Library, he said.

"This is energy that can save us money and is real clean," said Intintoli. "This is part of a much bigger plan, which you will see unfold in the next few months."

Intintoli said the solar panel array is the result of a process begun about a year ago when city officials began to look into ways the city could use renewable energy sources. 

"We turned out to be a rich area in terms of our potential for the development of wind power. We estimate our capacity could reach up to 500 megawatts," he explained. 

A key part of the city's team involved in developing renewable energy sources are Vallejo's "energy czar," Larry Asera, and Joe Bates, assistant maintenance superintendent for facilities. In fact, it was a conversation between the two, as they walked behind the station one afternoon about a year ago, that inspired the idea for putting solar panels in back of police headquarters. 

Bates said he and Asera were "just talking about different solar ideas" when he looked up, saw the roof to the maintenance garage and suggested they put a panel array up there. Asera agreed and the idea took off from there. Mayor Intintoli said Bates also researched grants available to cities wishing to invest in solar power, an effort that has helped offset the costs tremendously.

"(Bates) obtained the grant," said Intintoli. "He's able to access a variety of grants. He brought that to the attention of the city manager, who then brought it to the city council." 

Bates said the grant for this particular project, offered by the California Public Utilities Commission, covered $139,000 of the $295,000 spent on the system. The rest of the money came from city coffers. 

The panels themselves, manufactured by BP Solar, a division of British Petroleum oil company, are guaranteed for 20 years at a diminishing capacity of 1 percent per year.

In other words, the panels are expected to lose 20 percent of their production capacity in 20 years, and are guaranteed not to degrade at a faster rate. The total lifetime of the panels before they become too inefficient is expected to be about 50 years. The inverter, an integral part of the system because it switches AC and DC power, is only guaranteed for five years, although if something goes wrong it might not need to be replaced entirely.

"It might be like repairing a high-tech computer," said Thompson. "The system has no moving parts."

As far as he is aware, Thompson notes that the only other large public buildings in the Bay Area using solar power are the Alameda County Jail in Dublin (which he said generates one megawatt) and the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

Mayor Intintoli said the project was not put out to bid because the city had a hard time finding someone to take the project, since some of the technical specifications and needs of the police department could not be met by other companies to which the city proposed the project.

"It was a single source (project)," said Intintoli. "There's not too many people that can do it."

City Manager David Martinez said renewable energy projects are exempted from competitive bidding. 

Thompson has a similar explanation for why his company got the contract.

"I've had 20 years of experience as a union electrician," he said. "That's one difference between our company and others who come from a more 'solar' background. Tying everything together in the way we did was just another day of work for us, though it seems to have scared off the other contractors. We did start out though by giving our competitive bid price, so we went through that process.

Thompson said he is proud of the job his company did.

"We finished on budget and on time, and I'm extremely proud of the city of Vallejo's initial efforts for renewable energy," he said. 

The solar panel array, he said, has the capacity to "power 10 average-sized homes for a year. (The mayor and city council) had the foresight to ... take a bit of a risk. This is not mainstream yet."

Contact info: Tom Pendergast may be reached at 707-373-9391 or
tpendergast@getlocalnews.com