Big Solar

The Fresno Bee has an article on a very large Solar Installation in Clovis:

Clovis fruit packer goes solar
The $6.4 million system is believed to be the largest in California.

With energy costs of $1.5 million per year, Pat Ricchiuti has a strong incentive to reduce the power bill at his business.

So, the owner of P-R Farms is installing what is believed to be the largest, privately financed solar-energy system in the state at his Clovis packinghouse.

The $6.4 million system features 7,730 solar panels � each 3 feet, 4 inches by 4 feet � on the roof of his 150,000-square-foot packinghouse. Ricchiuti's investment after state rebates was $3.2 million for the 1-megawatt system.

"It was the right thing to do," said Ricchiuti, president of the Fresno County Farm Bureau.

Here is a picture and a bit more:

With the 50% rebate, Ricchiuti will recoup his investment in about 11 years. With no rebate, it would have taken 20 years, and Ricchiuti would not have done the project, he said.

Got a question for you... What are the projected maintenance costs? This is a Solar Electric plant -- the energy is stored in batteries and these need to be replaced every three to five years.

Is that cost built in?

Solar Electric panels have specific lifetimes -- their output drops and they become energy sinks after about 15 years and useless at 30.

Is that cost built in?

The Environmentalists grouse mightily at the levels of pollution from silicon chip fab lines as chemicals like Arsenic and Selenium are used and released into the waste stream. The surface area of the Silicon in an average home computer is about the size of one or two playing cards. Here we are talking about over 92 Thousand Square Feet of Silicon chips and the pollution controls needed to compensate for their manufacture.

Is that cost built in?

Finally, you received a rebate of 50% from those ever-so-generous taxpayers of California.

How do they feel about subsidizing your business like this?

Do they receive a discount?