All About Solar | Green Energy News

October 23, 2005 – Vol.10 No.31

All ABOUT SOLAR.

This week’s news...

When this editor sees endless shopping malls, big box stores, home improvement centers and warehouses he thinks solar power plants.

The expansive flat rooftops in a growing number of buildings in the U.S. are ideal places to mount large solar arrays that can power the buildings themselves, and possibly more.

SunEdison, of Baltimore, Maryland has announced that it has installed two solar systems atop Staples office supply facilities in California that will together generate as much as 560 kilowatts of electricity.

One of the solar installations supports the power needs for Staples’ 144,000 square foot Ontario fulfillment center which fills delivery orders for customers of Staples’ Quill business.

The other installation is on the roof of Staples’ 495,000 square foot Rialto retail distribution center.

Each Staples facility has 1600 BP Solar panels and is expected to generate about 15 percent of each facility’s peak power needs. BP Solar designed and installed both systems.

SunEdison and its SunE Solar Fund 1 pay for, own and operate the two solar systems. SunE is a $60 million fund created in June 2005 to build systems such as these. Staples pays only for the electricity generated by the solar system at a rate that is less than what they are currently paying for power supplied by the grid.

Visit SunEdison at http://www.sunedison.com/ and BP Solar at http://www.bpsolar.com/ .