Energy

US equips new solar plants with China-made panels

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-06-14 15:53

LOS ANGELES -- Four new community solar plants with panels manufactured in China have gone into service to cope with summer peak demand, major US electricity supplier Southern California Edison (SCE) announced Monday.

These new rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) stations were built in Fontana and Redlands, California, with a peak generating capacity of 7 megawatts of alternating current (AC), enough to serve 4,550 average homes.

SCE's spokesman Gil Alexander told Xinhua that the PV panels used for the solar plants were manufactured by Chinese company Trina Solar.

"When SCE announced its solar PV program in 2008, our primary goals were to help speed up California's deployment of solar generation while driving down the cost of photovoltaic panels for everyone," Mark Nelson, SCE director of generation planning and strategy, said. "We are on target to meet those goals."

The Fontana installations involved 35,000 PV panels for three solar stations. In Redlands, SCE has built an additional solar station with 5,900 panels.

The solar PV program SCE proposed to state regulators in March 2008 was approved in June 2009.

As one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, SCE provides power to nearly 14 million people everyday, encompassing 180 cities in central, coastal and southern California.