SolarWorld, the largest U.S. crystalline-silicon solar manufacturer for more than 40 years, announced recently that it has supplied four systems of about 1 megawatt each for the Eastern Municipal Water District (EMWD) in California’s Riverside County. The supplies carry forward a decade-long pattern of the company providing solar panels for peak-shaving power systems for water districts in energy-constrained California.
The latest four 1 MW systems, the last of which is to be commissioned in coming days, are located at EMWD’s desalter facility in Menifee (community of Sun City) and regional waste water-treatment facilities in San Jacinto, Moreno Valley, and Perris Valley. Composed of 72-cell SolarWorld solar panels mounted on NEXTracker single-axis trackers, the systems will enable the facilities to offset peak power demand.“EMWD’s Board of Directors has adopted the strategic objective to provide service in a cost-effective and environmentally responsible manner,” EMWD General Manager Paul Jones said. “By investing in solar energy at many of our larger facilities, we are minimizing our carbon footprint and ensuring we stabilize costs for our ratepayers both now and well into the future.”
Stronghold Engineering Inc., based in Riverside, Calif., was EMWD’s selected design-build contractor on the four projects. Parsons Corp., based in Pasadena, Calif., supported the agency’s field engineering division on the suite of 1 MW solar renewable energy projects.SolarWorld has supplied reliable systems for the state’s municipal and agricultural water organizations for more than a decade – among them, Semitropic Water Storage District in Wasco (2005), Desert Water Agency in Palm Springs (2005), El Dorado Irrigation District in Placerville (2006) and Cucamonga Valley Water District in Rancho Cucamonga (2006).
