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Rosemead, Calif., October 15, 2010 — Southern California Edison has begun construction of the state’s largest investor-owned utility photovoltaic power plant at a site in the San Joaquin Valley.
The construction project is expected to create about 125 jobs for Central and Southern California workers.
The 29,400 panel solar array will be located on 32 acres of city land adjacent to the Porterville, Calif., airport and will be capable of generating 6.7 million watts of electricity, enough power to serve 4,300 average homes on peak.
The installation will join SCE solar plants already online in Fontana and Chino, Calif., and six others under construction in Southern California’s Inland Empire.
During the next five years, SCE plans to install a total of 25 MW of solar generation at up to 100 sites. The utility also plans to sign power purchase agreements with independent producers for an equal amount of solar generation. The entire solar program is expected to create about 1,200 jobs.
“Our solar photovoltaic project is part of SCE continuous investment in clean generation and smart grid technologies to meet our customers’ future energy needs,” said SCE’s Chairman and CEO Alan Fohrer.
The solar plant to be installed at the Porterville site will be connected directly to SCE’s nearest neighborhood distribution circuit and benefit all SCE customers in the region.
* Providing power at roughly half the cost of smaller photovoltaic installations in California and twice the speed of large central station solar facilities.
* Creating new generation where customer demand is expected to rise.
* Gaining insights into the electrical effects of the high penetration of photovoltaics on distribution circuits. Information gained will be shared with the power industry.
An Edison International company, SCE serves a population of nearly 14 million via 4.9 million customer accounts in a 50,000-square-mile service area within Central, Coastal and Southern California.
