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18 June 2010
Arizona School Children Learn About Solar Powered Community At Soaring Heights
Children from Corona Foothills Middle School in Tucson were recently provided an opportunity to see firsthand, how solar technology is making a difference in their community.
Soaring Heights accommodated a request from the school to tour the community’s innovative solar project for more than 180 sixth grade students, a host of interested parents and teachers. The group received a special insider’s tour of Soaring Heights’ 3.3-megawatt solar ground-mounted array at Davis-Monthan AFB.
The inquisitive group was able to enter the solar array and gathered around one of the three power inverters for a 30-minute question and answer session. The session was lead by representatives Mike Galvez and Arnold Mares from SolarCity, Soaring Heights’ partner in the solar project and the company responsible for designing, maintaining and installing the 45,000 solar panels on the ground-mounted array and the solar photovoltaic rooftop panels on 900 homes throughout the community.
Soaring Heights assistant utility manager, John Karelis and GIS specialist, Justin Chisum, were also on hand to answer questions and explain to the group, how the solar project works and the benefits solar technology provides.
“As a project, we are always looking for ways to reach out and involve the community in our work, and the success of our solar development at Soaring Heights is just another way that we can accomplish that,” said John Karelis. “Soaring Heights is proud to have provided the opportunity to teach the children of Corona Foothills Middle School about our innovative solar project and to give them a firsthand look at working renewable energy technology.
Once complete, Soaring Heights at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base will be the largest solar-powered community in the continental U.S. It will also be one of the first solar powered communities on an Air Force Base in the U.S. The project is expected to top six megawatts of total solar capacity through ground-mounted photovoltaic systems and rooftop solar panels installed on approximately 900 residences throughout the community.
The solar arrays are expected to produce more than 10 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually, sufficient to provide an estimated 75 percent of Soaring Heights’ energy use, and could eventually offset 100 percent of the community’s electricity use.
Collectively (solar array and rooftop panels combined), the installation is expected to offset more than 570 million pounds of carbon dioxide over its lifetime - equivalent to taking approximately 50,000 cars off the road for a year, or planting 300,000 trees.
The 3.3-megawatt ground-mounted array was completed in December 2009. Installation of the 2.7-megawatt rooftop installation began in October 2009 and will be completed in December 2010.media
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