SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The electric utility in Sacramento has commissioned the largest parking lot solar system in the world. The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) has installed almost 14,000 solar photovoltaic modules in the main parking lot of the California State Fair.

Cal Expo opened on August 18 and will continue until Labor Day on September 4. The 540 kilowatt solar system captures the sun's energy to generate sufficient electricity for 180 residential homes. The modules are mounted on 20 sun tracking platforms to follow the sun as it arcs across the sky.

In addition to providing green power for the utility, the PV modules also provide an oasis of shaded parking in a desert of scorching blacktop. The installation provides 1,000 shaded parking spaces and features a display explaining how solar technology works to visitors to Cal Expo.

Each cantilevered structure has three rows of PV panels. Each of the 20 arrays, made up of 685 modules, is 130 feet long, 42 feet wide and 14 feet high.

The project is the latest commercial installation under SMUD's PV Pioneer I program, where the utility retains ownership of the solar equipment that feeds renewable energy directly to the power grid. In the PV Pioneer II program started last year, customers own the solar equipment and sell excess electricity back to SMUD.

SMUD has the largest utility owned distributed solar energy system in the U.S., with more than 600 customers involved in the two PV programs. The total installed capacity of solar energy systems exceeds 7,000 kW.

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RELATED LINKS:

American Solar Energy Society

Environmental Benefits of Solar Energy

Million Solar Roofs Initiative

National Center for Photovoltaics