SPURR is thrilled to announce our involvement in a groundbreaking project in Fresno, CA. On April 17th, the City of Fresno’s Department of Public Utilities (DPU) held a “Flip the Switch” ceremony to celebrate the completion of the largest commercial and municipal solar and battery storage portfolio in the United States, developed by ForeFront Power. This project is the largest of its kind in the country. It includes the Fresno-Clovis Regional Wastewater Reclamation Facility, the Northeast Surface Water Treatment Facility, and the Southeast Surface Water Treatment Facility.
As noted in BusinessWire, “At a combined 27 MW-DC in size, the DPU projects are expected to save over $122 million in ratepayer dollars by 2045. The crown jewel of the portfolio is the 19.6 MW system at the Fresno-Clovis Regional Wastewater Reclamation Facility, which is the largest commercial solar and battery system in the U.S. to date.”
The city’s use of union labor from IBEW Local 100 created nearly 200 local jobs, per The Business Journal, and will help eliminate more than 26,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the process.
ForeFront CEO, Dr. Ruben Fontes, shared the following statement with The Business Journal:
“We are honored to partner with the City of Fresno to realize their visionary energy plan[.] The DPU sites are unique in their scale as well as their impact. By generating and storing clean power on-site, DPU reduces its reliance on costly grid electricity and can pass those savings back to ratepayers. Moreover, the batteries installed at each site ensure that energy is always available to power the City’s essential infrastructure.”
This project was procured and awarded to ForeFront Power through a SPURR master contract, which was open for orders from 2017 to 2022. This initiative is part of our ongoing commitment to creating streamlined RFP processes that provide sustainable solar and energy storage solutions to public entities in California. We are proud to have contributed to the successful completion of this innovative project through the SPURR REAP Program.
The City of Fresno procured its solar energy and battery storage assets by leveraging the Renewable Energy Aggregated Procurement (“REAP”) Program, which provides public sector buyers with pre-negotiated contracts, industry-leading pricing, and standardized terms. Through REAP’s integrated RFP process and PPA, the City of Fresno selected ForeFront Power to develop, finance, and construct its solar energy and energy storage portfolio.
Read more about this project in Yahoo Finance, BusinessWire, ABC30 Fresno, and The Business Journal.