Juice is now flowing from the largest solar array ever installed by the city of Santa Barbara, a total of 1,830 photovoltaic panels placed across the rooftop real estate of the city’s corporate yard.

The 384-kilowatt system is expected to produce enough energy in a year to offset more than 420,000 pounds of carbon dioxide, equivalent to the amount of energy to power 100 homes in Santa Barbara.

“Overall, it’s exceeding my expectations,” said Jim Dewey, the city’s facilities and energy manager. “It’s producing more during the off-peak hours, at the beginning and end of the day.”

Even on the few days of the year when clouds grace the skies above the city, as they did yesterday when leaders gathered to ceremonially throw the switch on the new solar system, the panels are still producing a significant amount of energy, he said.

In addition to touting the environmental superiority of solar power, city leaders also highlighted several economic benefits related to the photovoltaic project.

“It reduces our costs,” Mayor Marty Blum said. “In this day and age, that’s just a great goal.”

Thanks to a purchase agreement with Tioga Energy, which financed and operates the solar facility, the city has locked in a fixed, predictable rate.

Dewey said the rate is set a half-cent lower than current utility rates, which should pencil out to roughly $60,000 in savings for the city this year.

The city also didn’t have to put up any money for the project — Tioga Energy fronted the $3 million project cost and will sell the electricity produced by the system back to the city.

Preston Roper, executive vice president of corporate development and operations for Tioga Energy, said the purchase agreement approach takes away the upfront cost and risk often cited as a downside to solar technology.

“It’s accelerating the whole adoption of solar power,” he said.

It’s also a long-term hedge against fluctuating and rising utility power costs, Roper added, as the rate is locked in for two decades.

Dr. Walter Kohn, a Nobel laureate and professor at UC Santa Barbara, said the project represents the epitome of the oft-repeated environmental slogan, “Think globally, act locally.”

“This is a local project with an immense global impact,” he said, noting that by the end of the century, gas and oil reserves will be gone. “…We have to be ready for a fantastic change in the world’s use of energy.”

In terms of its local impact, the solar array will provide approximately 2 percent of the city’s overall energy use. It powers approximately half of the city buildings in the area, including public works operations, the motor pool and community development offices.

Dewey said the city is already looking for other ways to achieve energy efficiency, including more photovoltaic projects. A large array proposed for the airport’s long-term parking lot would produce approximately one megawatt of power if completed, he said, nearly three times the energy output of the corporate yard project.

And with the cost of solar panels dropping, city leaders said there are increasingly more opportunities to produce solar power.

“The fact that the cost is coming down so much is critical,” Councilmember Grant House said, “because it’s going to allow more people to pop these things up on their homes.”

Paul Detering

Paul Detering is CEO of Tioga Energy. Tioga Energy enables commercial, government and non-profit organizations to reduce their energy costs while lowering carbon emissions. Through the SurePath™ solar power purchase agreement (PPA), Tioga Energy owns and operates renewable energy systems that provide organizations a hedge against energy price volatility and accelerate their access to clean energy without any capital outlay. For more information, visit www.tiogaenergy.com.

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