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AMSOLAR to Build Large College Solar Array

The University of San Diego (USD) and AMSOLAR Corp. said, on Nov. 18, that they had signed an agreement to install a 1.23-megawatt distributed solar array across nine buildings on USD’s campus.

The announcement was made outside the university’s new Student Life Pavilion, a four-story, 50,000-square-foot “green” building that is anticipated to receive LEED Gold certification (under the U.S. Green Building Council’s sustainability gauge) for its environmentally-friendly features, which include heat island reduction, low environmental impact, water use reduction, energy efficiency, air quality, and recycling and “green” cleaning options.

The 5,000 solar panels will top roofs at academic facilities, residence halls, a parking structure and the Jenny Craig Pavilion and will, when completed, be the eighth-largest solar facility on a college campus in the United States.

Solana Beach-based AMSOLAR, founded in 2008, is a design/build solar company focused primarily on installing solar photovoltaic systems through power purchase agreements, or PPAs, in which AMSOLAR installs and maintains the arrays, and the participating entities buy the power produced.

The proposed USD installation will reduce energy consumption across the facility by about 15 percent, according to USD President Mary Lyons. The PPA runs for 25 years, or the life cycle of the solar panels, after which USD can presumably buy the panels outright or simply inherit their excess value.

As with most PPAs, AMSOLAR will cover all costs by capturing incentives from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which provides, through the U.S. Treasury Department, a 30-percent grant which operates like a Section 48 Investment Tax Credit; that is, 30 percent of the cost of a solar installation will be issued, as a grant, within 60 days of the installation being placed in service.

AMSOLAR will also take advantage of state solar incentives, which under the California Solar Initiative includes the EPBB, or a one-time payment based on expected performance and paid at about $3.25 per watt generated, depending on fund depletion rates.

The university will buy the electricity generated at a rate less than that charged by local utility San Diego Gas & Electric, or SDG&E, and the installation is projected to be finished by spring of 2010.

The university is the first academic institution to enter into a PPA with AMSOLAR, which has a record 3,000 solar projects under its belt to date.

Other U.S. universities with large solar installations include the University of California at San Diego (5.75-kilowatt system), Rutgers University (90 megawatts), Brandeis University (277 kilowatts), and Colorado State University at Ft. Collins (35 megawatts).

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