Navy breaks ground on solar installation in Mojave Desert
Last week, the Navy broke ground on what will be the largest solar installation in that branch of the military.
Located at China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station in the Mojave Desert, the solar project will produce 13.8 megawatts of power and supply approximately 30 percent of the station’s energy demands. The Navy estimates that will equate to over $13 million in energy savings.
The benefits of such a large solar installation will come at no upfront cost to the Navy, which has entered into a 20 year power purchase agreement with San Jose, California-based SunPower. The 31,680 solar panels in the array will be owned by SunPower and third-party investor MetLife. The Navy exchanged use of their land for the solar installation for the discounted energy they will purchase between now and 2030. Private companies will maintain and service the solar array.
SunPower director of federal accounts Karen Butterfield said that the major advantage of such an arrangement is the fact that the Navy won’t have to pay to install or maintain the system and can instead “focus on their core mission” while SunPower provides clean energy at a reasonable rate. This is in fact the first 20-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) the federal government has entered into, but it won’t be the last.
The Army for example has committed to using renewable sources to meet 25 percent of it’s energy demands by 2025. It is already developing more than 20 clean energy projects and a variety of multiple-award contracts to see those projects built. Already the Army has more than 100 energy savings performance contracts underway in order to “improve the energy efficiency of existing building, enhance use leasing, cooperative agreements and power purchase agreements.”
This solar installation at the Navy facility in California’s Mojave Desert is only slight behind the military’s largest at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. Nellis’ solar array generates14.2 megawatts of power.
