CAL UTIL INKS BIG ROOFS FOR SUN

Southern California Edison -- ProLogis Agreement to Advance Grid Integration of Renewable Generation
May 10, 2010 (Business Wire via MarketWatch)

"Southern California Edison (SCE) and ProLogis…have reached agreement to place up to 40 percent of SCE's massive 250 megawatt solar panel project on ProLogis distribution warehouse roofs in the Inland Empire region of Southern California.

"The agreement will make available to the utility as much as 15 million-square-feet of roof space for the installation of more than a half-million advanced solar panels. Panel installation will begin this year on the first ProLogis roofs included in the agreement -- four structures in the Ontario Airport complex and a fifth in the Redlands Distribution Center…ProLogis will serve as construction manager for the installation of panels on the leased roofs…"

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"SCE's solar stations are connected directly to the utility's neighborhood grid sending the solar power to all customers. This aspect of the project is expected to lead to significant smart grid enhancements to SCE's neighborhood distribution circuitry, advances the utility plans to share with the utility industry…

"The ProLogis rooftops… are grouped in several communities. Connecting multiple large panel arrays to local distribution circuits will require design changes in grid engineering."

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"U.S. distribution circuits were designed to carry power from neighborhood substations to customers using one-way voltage stability controls placed at key points along the route. Connecting a large solar generating station to the middle of such circuits means engineers must redesign the circuitry to enable features such as power flowing from the solar sites in both directions…SCE is collaborating with the industry to develop new circuit designs and smart grid technologies…

"[The] SCE Solar Project…will help California meet its million solar roofs goal at a fraction of the cost of typical photovoltaic installations and without drawing funds from the California Solar Initiative…[It] hopefully will reduce the cost of solar energy for all customers…The project will provide new generation sources to areas where customer demand is expected to rise…[and it] will create as many as 1,200 new green jobs in Southern California in the solar industry. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers…is supporting the plan through the expansion of its solar installation apprentice training program…"