South San Joaquin Irrigation District - Manteca, CA

Clean power to produce clean water. The West Coast’s second largest solar array farm - capable of generating nearly 2 megawatts of electrical load – is quietly cutting into the $500,000 annual PG&E bill for the nearby South County Surface Water Treatment Plant. "I believe we’re the only (electricity generating concern) in California with a zero carbon footprint in our energy portfolio," noted SSJID General Manager Jeff Shields. But environmental sensitivity took a back-seat to ensuring long-term financial strength for the facility and lowering costs for families, businesses, farmers, and government agencies that are part of the communities they serve. Stabilizing energy costs will benefit nearly 170,000 residents that rely on the plant for drinking water.

Conergy was selected as the solar energy partner to engineer, procure and construct a 1.9 MW single-axis solar tracking system to provide electricity to the state-of-the-art DeGroot Water treatment Plant. By following the sun from east to west over the course of the day, the single axis tracker will boost the energy output of the system by 15%. The $12.5 million installation consists of 11,040 solar modules that will produce 3.7 million kilowatt hours of electricity output annually, enough to power 550 homes, and offsetting 4,106,216 lbs of carbon dioxide per year.

With their Tri-Dam partners - Oakdale Irrigation District - the SSJID generates 131 megawatts of green power. That’s enough to power 393,000 California households for one year by using renewable means - solar and hydro - without creating an ounce of air pollution. SSJID, however, didn’t stop there. The gravel roads that serve the solar farm are crushed irrigation pipe that was removed during a major modernization project. As far as Shields and the SSJID board members are concerned, their efforts to improve the economic prosperity of the people they represent in an environmentally responsible manner is continuing the tradition started 100 years ago when the irrigation district was first formed to bring prosperity to the sandy plains.