Metro Park Towers, a 2-tower commercial office complex in Los Angeles, Calif., is ready to move forward with its plans to install a solar PV system that will provide 15 percent of the buildings' annually energy use.
Regreen Corp., an energy services provider in California, received $2 million from Nara Bank to start construction on the 255-kW solar installation at the office complex. The buildings previously completed lighting retrofit projects through ReGreen to reduce their energy usage by 20 percent, and are taking the next step to generate their own energy through solar installations to further increase efficiency, said Regreen.
The panels will be installed on top of carports in the tower parking lot, making it one of the largest urban in-fill solar projects in California, according to Regreen. Installation is expected to be completed by the end of October.
Nearly 50 percent of the project cost will be covered by the LADWP Solar Initiative Rebate Program & Federal 1603 Grant for Solar Energy Program.
Several initiatives in California are pushing for more commercial solar installations. As an example, Southern California Edison has a program to install 500 MW worth of solar on commercial rooftops. A similar program may be in the works from PG&E, and in Sacramento, a 100 MW program is already full.
