by Rebecca Walker — December 3, 2010—Cupertino Electric, Inc.’s (CEI) Energy Alternatives Division and the Mountain View/Los Altos High School District announced that CEI will design and build a 1.26 Megawatt (MW) photovoltaic (PV) system spanning multiple campuses for the District.
The solar system is part of a larger modernization program funded by a $41.3 million bond and will be installed on canopies at the District’s Mountain View and Los Altos High School campuses. The system is expected to meet 45 percent of the District’s current electrical needs.
The technology is comprised of two distinct systems installed on ground-mounted canopies: a 755 kilowatt (kW) system on the Mountain View High School campus and a 515 kW system on the Los Alto High School campus.
The canopies located in the parking lots of the campuses will span approximately 95,000 square feet, with construction managed by Rick Kramer of Kramer Project Development Company, Inc. The project is being constructed in phases to minimize the impact on available student parking spaces at the Mountain View and Los Altos high school campuses.
Over its 25-year lifetime, the District’s solar system is expected to produce 39,302,704 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity, an amount equal to the annual carbon dioxide emissions from the electricity use of 100 homes. The estimated kilowatt-hours generated during the lifetime of the system are valued at approximately $11.1 million dollars. In addition to energy savings, the District will receive PG&E rebates worth approximately $1.6 million.
For more information, see the Cupertino Electric Web site.
