More solar panels coming to Hwy. 1 as CMC, Camp SLO plan projects
Look for more solar panels to sprout along Highway 1 this year as Camp San Luis Obispo and the California Men's Colony add arrays to their properties.
The new installations will join Cal Poly's 18.5-acre solar farm, which was completed this year and will generate more than 11 million kWh per year.
The Cal Poly project includes more than 16,000 individual solar panels with a capacity of 4.5 megawatts (AC). It is designed to supply 25 percent of the university's power needs.
Camp San Luis Obispo plans to begin construction on its project next month.
The camp's photovoltaic system will include roof-mounted panels on several buildings generating 0.94 megawatts of electricity and solar parking canopies that will generate 0.58 kilowatts.
The total system will be able to generate more than 2.8 million kWh during its first year of operation, meeting about 73 percent of Camp SLO's electricity needs.
Installation should be complete in July.
The Men's Colony will install its solar system next to Cal Poly's facility beginning in the third quarter of 2018, according to Jacqueline Cummings, public information officer for General Services.
The 2.1-megawatt ground-mounted facility will generate about 4.7 million kWh per year — or 35 percent of CMC's annual electricity use.
The system should be online by early next year.
On March 4, the California Independent System Operator said solar energy supplied about half the demand in the state, an all-time high.
Elsewhere on the Central Coast, solar systems are in the works at Hearst Castle and Vandenberg Air Force base in Lompoc.
And solar energy conversions are also happening on a smaller scale across San Luis Obispo County. More than 1,200 homes added rooftop solar arrays last year, according to constructionmonitor.com. That was down from 1,650 the year before and 2,600 homes in 2015.
This story was originally published March 25, 2018 at 11:14 AM with the headline "More solar panels coming to Hwy. 1 as CMC, Camp SLO plan projects."