Plans Announced for Solar Plant Near PG&E's Mendota Substation

Sun-produced energy could launch a new industry in Valley.

A San Francisco company has chosen west Fresno County for a massive solar facility -- one that would be the largest in California and the leading edge of a potentially important new Valley industry.

The project, if approved by Fresno County officials, would feature photovoltaic panels covering about 40 acres near Pacific Gas & Electric Co.'s Mendota substation, said Bill Barnes, chief executive of project developer Cleantech America LLC.

It would produce 5 megawatts -- enough electricity to power about 7,800 homes, Barnes said Wednesday. According to California Energy Commission records, it would be the state's largest unless overtaken by future projects before it opens in 2009.

PG&E has agreed to buy power from the Mendota project under a 20-year deal, Fong Wan, PG&E's vice president of energy procurement, said in a prepared statement Wednesday.

Under a state mandate, the company must supply 20% of its customer power needs from renewable energy sources by 2010.

"By harnessing the power of the sun's rays in a scalable way, we are taking a significant step towards" that goal, Wan said.

Cleantech is a startup company with no track record. But Barnes -- while declining to elaborate -- said it plans other such projects. The Mendota site also could be expanded to provide as much as 50 megawatts in coming years, he said.

If so, that would dwarf the nation's existing largest solar installation -- which produces 4.6 megawatts -- near Tucson, Ariz., as well as two even larger projects now being planned: a 15-megawatt system in Nevada and an 8-megawatt system in Colorado.

Cleantech's project also has piqued the interest of major solar-panel manufacturers and other solar technology companies in locating to the central San Joaquin Valley, Barnes said.

"We are exploring a variety of opportunities, and we think that the potential exists for the San Joaquin Valley to become the solar valley in California," he said.

Barnes said the Valley has many advantages for solar power, including abundant sunshine and its central location in the state's power distribution system.

The Mendota site would be designed, built and operated by the California Construction Authority, a state-backed agency that is operating and building a combined 8 megawatts of solar installations in the state, including an 800-kilowatt system at the Fresno Fairgrounds, he said.

Tom Baker, lead executive for the California Construction Authority, said about 25 people will be hired to build the Cleantech project.

While Barnes would not disclose the cost, he said the company has lined up investors seeking tax credits and other incentives.

"This is a very good time to be financing major solar projects," he said. "There is a tremendous amount of interest in the equity markets, especially for California."

Driven by state mandates and state and federal tax credits and other incentives, solar power installations, both large-scale and small-scale, have been booming in California in recent years.

The San Joaquin Valley has had its share of large-scale projects, including a 1.13-megawatt, $3.2 million system at Clovis-based P-R Farms and Paramount Farms' $7.5 million, 1.1-megawatt system covering about 8 acres in Lost Hills in Kern County.

So far, however, most of the largest solar projects in the state have been outside the Valley, said Steve Geil, president of the Economic Development Corp. serving Fresno County.

With Cleantech's new project, "I think you'll see, when they put their solar array out there, that this will bring a lot of attention to the Central Valley," Geil said. "Fresno County should be -- and will be -- a future major player in the solar energy field."

Geil said he has met with some solar panel manufacturers and other solar-related companies interested in locating in the Valley, though he would not identify them.

"We'll see how that goes," he said.

Sue Kateley, executive director of the California Solar Energy Industries Association trade group, said she sees more opportunity for Fresno to capture more solar installation and distribution companies on the news of Cleantech's project.

While she didn't envision as bright a potential for large-scale solar manufacturing in the Valley, "one of the great things about solar is that you'll always need local businesses for installation and distribution," she said.

Ashley Swearengin, chief operating officer for the Regional Jobs Initiative, said Cleantech's new project could also boost homegrown businesses in the solar field.

That growth could be aided by solar research facilities like Fresno's Water and Energy Technology Incubator, a $4 million collaboration between Fresno State's International Center for Water Technology and the Clovis-based Central Valley Business Incubator.

"We don't just want to research it here," Swearengin said. "We want to locate and start the companies here."

CalRENEW-1 also appealed to PG&E, which has sought solar-power projects that deliver the most energy during "peak" hours of demand on hot summer afternoons.