Fresno shines on solar energy lists

Published online on Saturday, Jul. 25, 2009

Fresno's hot sun -- and the cost of cooling everything it bakes -- has catapulted the city onto Top-10 lists for solar projects.

Fresno ranks third in the state for the number of kilowatts its solar projects produce, according to a recent report ranking California cities.

The city also ranks fifth for the number of projects on roofs, with Clovis close behind at seventh.

The California's Solar Cities report was compiled by Environment California, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit environmental advocacy group.

More than 300 days of sunshine a year make Fresno an ideal place for solar power generation, experts say.

But it's not just sunshine that make solar projects practical here. With all that sunshine comes the need to run air conditioners to cool homes and businesses in summer, noted REC Solar's Gregg Fischer, a senior manager of Northern California sales and business development.

Power is expensive here, he noted. California's average prices for power are among the top 20% of all states, according to the federal government's Energy Administration.

And when local residents run their air conditioners during peak power-usage periods, they pay even more, he said.

"You have this combination of high usage, and high usage at very high cost, coupled with 300 days of sunshine," Fischer said. "There are very few areas that are more practical for solar."

Motivations in other cities are different, which is why San Francisco has a high number of solar projects, but not a lot of sun, Fischer said. That city's residents tend to be more motivated by environmental reasons, he said.

Data used in the report comes from the California Energy Commission, the California Public Utilities Commission, the California Center for Sustainable Energy and the state's private and public utilities. The rankings do not include solar projects that are owned by utilities or ones not connected to the electrical grid.

Fresno's No. 5 ranking for the number of solar installations includes everything from rooftop systems on houses to large commercial and government projects. When the Fresno and Clovis numbers are combined, the area has 1,764 installations, more than San Francisco, Los Angeles or San Jose.

Joseph Oldham, the city of Fresno's sustainability manager, said leadership by the current and previous mayor and the City Council has helped spur acceptance of solar power here.

The city allowed 9.5 acres of solar panels to be built at Fresno Yosemite International Airport by a private company and buys the power it produces. The city also has a 668-kilowatt system on a rooftop at the Municipal Service Center, where city buses and other vehicles are serviced.

And there's a snowball effect among residents who put solar projects on their roofs, Oldham said.

"Neighbors talk," he said. "You get someone in a community that puts an array up on their home, and they start telling their neighbors about how much less their power costs are."

The number of companies offering solar in the area has multiplied in recent years, Oldham said.

Federal and state rebates and tax credits help bring down the price. And more options -- including ways for residents to lease systems built on their own rooftops or just buy power from them -- also bring down the cost, said Paul Ahern, regional sales manager of Akeena Solar, which has an office in Clovis.

Fresno and Clovis's solar installations show that the face of solar power is changing, said Bernadette Del Chiaro, the report's author.

"It shows its going from a niche market along the coast to Main Street," she said.