SolarCity, a solar designer and installer, has unveiled a new 100-kilowatt (kW) solar installation at Intel's Jones Farm Campus in Hillsboro, Oregon. The DC solar electric system consists of 504 solar modules on the roof of Building Four at the Jones Farm Campus.
Intel expects to offset more than 4 million pounds of greenhouse gas that would have been emitted by coal or fossil-fuel-generated electricity during the first 25 years of the system's lifetime. This is equivalent to taking 21.5 cars off the road for 25 years, or planting 35 acres of trees, according to SolarCity.
Intel also showcased an educational kiosk about solar power in its visitor building lobby, provided by SolarCity. The kiosk displays an Internet feed from SolarGuard, SolarCity's monitoring system, to provide updates every 15 minutes on the new solar system's production, electricity offset and environmental impact.
Intel was recently named the largest purchaser of "green power" in the U.S. by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Other recent large solar installations by SolarCity include a dual-array, 1,502-panel solar power system that will power Greenwaste Recovery's Material Recovery Facility in San Jose, California, and a 650-kW installation for eBay, consisting of 3,248 individual solar panels spanning 60,000 square-feet on multiple buildings, in San Jose.
