The installation covers 1.2 million square feet (0.1 million square metres) on a Prologis distribution centre rooftop in Rialto, California, and is part of Southern California Edison’s renewable energy programme.
“With the completion of this project, Oltmans has constructed a total of 13 solar installations totalling 26 MW and covering 5.5 million square feet with a value of more than $68 million,” said Mike Englhard, vice president of Oltmans Solar. “We have longstanding, close relationships with both the construction and solar communities, which gives us the ability to manage large-scale solar installations from identification to construction completion.”
After specialising in the construction of warehouse distribution centres and office buildings, etc. and retrofitting existing buildings, Oltmans moved into solar PV installation projects. It has installed rooftop arrays on a DHL sorting facility in Moreno and a General Motors distribution centre in Rancho Cucamonga (both in California) among others.
Going solar
With its abundant solar resources, California has been working to decrease its dependence on fossil fuels through the adoption of solar power for some time. In 2002, California established its Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) Programme, with the goal of increasing the percentage of renewable energy in the state's electricity mix to 20 percent of retail sales by 2017.
The 2003 Integrated Energy Policy Report recommended accelerating that goal to 20 percent by 2010, and the 2004 Energy Report Update further recommended increasing the target to 33 percent by 2020. The state's Energy Action Plan supported this goal.
In 2006 under Senate Bill 107, California's 20 percent by 2010 RPS goal was codified. The legislation required retail sellers of electricity to increase renewable energy purchases by at least 1 percent per year with a target of 20 percent renewables by 2010. Publicly owned utilities set their own RPS goals recognising the intent of the legislature to attain the 20 percent by 2010 target.
On November 17, 2008, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Executive Order S-14-08 requiring that "...[a]ll retail sellers of electricity shall serve 33 percent of their load with renewable energy by 2020." The following year, Executive Order S-21-09 directed the California Air Resources Board, under its AB 32 authority, to enact regulations to achieve the goal of 33 percent renewables by 2020.
In the ongoing effort to codify the ambitious 33 percent by 2020 goal, SBX1-2 was signed by Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr., in April 2011. In his signing comments, Governor Brown noted that: "This bill will bring many important benefits to California, including stimulating investment in green technologies in the state, creating tens of thousands of new jobs, improving local air quality, promoting energy independence, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions."
This new RPS preempts the California Air Resources Board's 33 percent Renewable Electricity Standard and applies to all electricity retailers in the state including publicly owned utilities, investor-owned utilities, electricity service providers, and community choice aggregators. All of these entities must adopt the new RPS goals of 20 percent of retails sales from renewables by the end of 2013, 25 percent by the end of 2016, and the 33 percent requirement being met by the end of 2020.
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