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Mitsubishi Electric & Electronics USA Inc. and Perpetual Power (P2) have completed the installation of four solar-powered deep water wells at Limoneira Company's Ducor Ranch in California. The four 250-kilowatt (kW) solar arrays that make up the proejct include single-axis tracking systems which are expected increase power output of each array by 15%.
The four 250-kW solar systems replace fossil fueled-powered water pumps.
When operating at full capacity, the 6,400 ground-mounted, high-efficiency photovoltaic panels can generate 1-megawatt (MW) of energy for the Limoneira Company, which grows and processes lemons, avocados, oranges, specialty citrus, pistachios and cherries on its orchards in Santa Paula, California Limoneira’s solar electric system is expected to produce 2.3 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity annually, P2 said.
The four 250-kW solar systems replace fossil fueled-powered water pumps. This new 1-MW system complements Limoneira’s existing 1 MW solar orchard installed in October 2008, supplying the company with a total of 2 MW of solar power.
The solar system is owned by a third-party company, which allows Limoneira Company to purchase the electricity for an average of $0.08/kWh, more than a third less than California’s average retail electric rate of $0.12/kWh.
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Fossil kWh will increase from 12 to 80 c/kWh (from 2009 to 2029), so you can amortize your solar station if you sell your electicity from 8 to 76 c/kWh.
The sun will not send invoice in 2029. Energy will still be there.
Solar kWh is already cheaper than fossil energy. It is only a matter of financial computation.
What will be the price of fossil kWh in 20 years ?
Parity with the grid is not the good comparison. Investment parity is the important question.
:)
I am curious about answers to financing questions because maybe it's a structure that could be replicated in other places. I hope we will get follow-up.
Unless the companies installing will own the project, the owner isn't named in the article.
Does the third-party owner want anonymity?
In Portland, there may be a push to have huge energy-users publicize where their energy comes from so that consumers can put that in the equation when they choose vendors.
Limoneira's website is set up to capitalize on that. I linked over and looked at their website pretty thoroughly. Their marketing people are on the job.
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