More than 18,000 solar panels were installed at Army family housing thanks to Balfour Beatty Communities and SolarCity. The solar panels are installed on multi-family housing, community centers and maintenance facilities at Fort Detrick, Maryland and Fort Carson, Colo., to provide power to approximately 1,200 housing units across the two bases.
SolarCity designed, built and will maintain the solar power systems, and the military housing project companies (jointly owned by the Army and Balfour Beatty Communities) purchase the power they produce at a discount to local utility rates to generate savings. The installations total more than 4.7 MW of solar power generation capacity — Fort Carson is the larger of the projects with a combined 3 MW of capacity and the Fort Detrick installations are at 1.7 MW.
RELATED: The next big product push from SolarCity? Solar roofs
“This partnership is yet another example of Fort Carson’s work to increase our nation’s security through energy efficiency and home-grown clean energy solutions,” said U.S. Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado. “It will support service members and their families while benefiting Colorado’s economy and environment.”
“All Marylanders are subject to more frequent and deadly heat waves and storms and 70 percent live in coastal areas, so I take very seriously the threats from climate change, as we all should,” said U.S. Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland, a senior member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. “The good news is that by reducing our carbon pollution, we can slow, stop and even reverse these risks, while creating new jobs and increasing America’s energy security. SolarCity’s investment in Ft. Detrick will move us closer to our national clean energy goals. It is the type of mutually beneficial private investment that moves us in the right direction, and I applaud it.”
The installations are part of SolarCity’s SolarStrong project, the largest residential solar initiative in American history, which now provides power across 37 military installations.
— Solar Builder magazine
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.