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Economic and dam related articles

Sacramento Utility Announces
Solar Power Purchase Agreement

by Nate Lew
Cooler Planet, July 8, 2010

More residents of the Sacramento area will soon be enjoying the benefits of clean energy under a recently announced power purchase agreement.

According to the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, it has signed a 20 year agreement with Recurrent Energy for 60 megawatts of solar energy that will be produced in the southern portion of Sacramento County.

Recurrent Energy is expected to develop 12 separate 5 megawatt solar arrays that are set to be operational by fall 2012. These were said to be the first power purchase agreements from the utility's recently implemented feed-in tariff program.

"Distributed-scale solar has an important role to play in helping to meet near-term renewable energy goals," said Arno Harris, CEO of Recurrent Energy. "We have over 330 megawatts of distributed-scale projects in our contracted portfolio across North America and Europe, and these 12 solar power systems with SMUD are a clear validation of our approach to developing and marketing solar power in California."

Distributed solar projects tend to take up less space than other large-scale utility scale arrays, which helps to hold down costs while also reducing other potential difficulties like land acquisition and permitting.


Nate Lew
Sacramento Utility Announces Solar Power Purchase Agreement
Cooler Planet, July 8, 2010

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