MCE Solar One and You A solar project for the people, by the people, with the people By Matt Larson There’s a new solar development in town and Richmond residents need to pay the most attention. Chevron is leasing 60 acres of land to Marin Clean Energy (MCE) for only $1 a year to enable construction of the MCE Solar One project—a solar panel field that will bring even more clean energy to the eco-friendlier Bay Area. As a capped landfill, this land is about to be transformed from an entirely unusable landscape to a force for sustainability. As a publicly owned 10.5 megawatt endeavor, “This project is going to be one of the largest of its kind in the Bay Area,” said Alex DiGiorgio, MCE Community Development Manager. “It will provide enough energy for the equivalent of approximately 3,000 homes; in it’s first year of operation it’s expected to produce 20,000 megawatt hours of renewable power.” Before we get there, however, it must be built. And who is going to build it? The local communities of Richmond, San Pablo and unincorporated North Richmond. “We’re having a 50% minimum local hire requirement with this project,” said DiGiorgio. “That’s a minimum—a floor, not a ceiling—it’s not a goal, it’s a requirement and we hope to exceed that.” To make this all possible MCE expects to work with RichmondBUILD, a public private partnership created by the City of Richmond to employ individuals coming from low-income households into the renewable energy job field. MCE provides sustainable energy services to residents in Richmond, San Pablo, El Cerrito, unincorporated Napa, Benicia and Marin County, in partnership with PG&E. On your PG&E bill you may notice a field for delivery charges and a field for generation charges. If you do not opt out of MCE, they’ll be listed as the generation charge instead of PG&E, but PG&E will still be delivering the energy. So will energy produced by MCE Solar One come directly to your household? “We ensure that for every kilowatt hour used by our customers, we are dispatching an equivalent amount of 50-100% renewable energy on their behalf,” said DiGiorgio. “Once an electron hits the grid, however, there’s no way to tell where it came from.” So by choosing MCE
Contra Costa Marketplace - Nov 2015
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