HMC Farms, one of the largest grower-shipper-packer of numerous varieties of tree fruit and table grapes, has taken a huge green leap forward by moving forward with Cenergy Power on a 10 acre solar photovoltaic (PV) farm. The large 2.2-MW solar system will span across 390,000 square feet of ground space and will enable HMC to significantly hedge against rising electric utility charges on two cold storage and packaging meters. An additional 70-kW solar carport will be added to supplant HMC’s energy use at the main office building on the property.
HMC Farms selected Cenergy Power based on Cenergy’s established expertise to engineer and build large commercial and utility solar projects. The giant ground mounted solar and carport systems have been designed to reliably produce over 3.4 million kWh of energy annually, which will reduce the plant’s energy needs by +68% and provide an attractive 4-year unlevered return on investment.
“We believe that economically sound sustainability initiatives make tremendous business sense and we’re excited to move forward with Cenergy Power on our large solar project,” says Michael Toms, Chief Operating Officer of HMC Farms. “In addition to the strong financial benefits, we feel great about the environmental attributes associated with the solar system. According to data from Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the clean energy generated by our solar farm will be equivalent to the carbon sequestered by 2,000 acres of forests annually.”
As part of the solar arrangement, Cenergy Power will be providing scheduled operations and maintenance (O&M) work, including but not limited to touch-free panel cleanings, preventative maintenance & repair, and overall system warranties.
— Solar Builder magazine
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