by jbs083010 b5 — September 1, 2010—AT&T and SunEdison recently announced that SunEdison, global solar energy services provider and subsidiary of MEMC Electronic Materials, will expand AT&T’s national solar initiative by activating a new rooftop solar power installation in San Diego, California.
In addition to this installation in San Diego, AT&T has contracts with SunEdison to deploy five other solar power installations in California by the second quarter of 2011, equating to approximately 2 megawatts (MW) of total solar capacity for all six sites. The additional California solar deployments will be located in Dunnigan, Commerce, Mojave, Santa Ana and West Sacramento.
The solar power installation in San Diego is a 296 kW rooftop mounted photovoltaic system that will generate an estimated 420,000 kWh of energy in its first year of operation alone. Over 20 years, the power installation is expected to generate more than 7.7 million kWh of energy—enough energy to power more than 720 US homes for one year—and avoid more than 8 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions.
The program is made possible through a strategic power purchase agreement (PPA) between SunEdison and AT&T under which SunEdison will construct, monitor and maintain an additional five solar power installations in California. AT&T will buy the energy produced from the solar systems to offset their grid demand. The six systems will total an estimated 2 megawatts of solar capacity and will generate over 3.2 million kWh of energy within the first year of operation.
