Largest Private Solar Project Inaugurated in Sacramento

3 Megawatt Facility Will Help Power Depot Park Business Complex

State, city and public utility officials joined today to inaugurate one of the Sacramento region’s largest private solar power installations – a 3-megawatt (DC) project that will supply electricity to Depot Park, the 3-million square-foot commercial and industrial complex in South Sacramento.

“I launched ‘Greenwise Sacramento’ because I believe this area has the opportunity to be the greenest region in the country and a hub for investment in clean technology,” said Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson. “Today’s dedication demonstrates that good environmental policy can be good economic policy. The scale of this project shows that while Sacramento has the sunshine to create renewable energy, we also have the collaboration and the imagination to think big and turn a Brownfield site into a renewable energy showcase. Congratulations to all those involved!”

The 12,600-panel array will produce enough power to meet approximately 40% of the annual electricity needs at Depot Park, the former Sacramento Army Depot. The installation is one of the largest ground mounted-tracking solar projects in California and the only one located at a Superfund Site within a redeveloped military facility. 

“California solar projects not only provide an efficient and affordable source of energy, they provide jobs to high skilled Californians,” said Joel Ayala, Director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development. “The investment that Chint and Astronergy have made in California is an historic achievement and our hope is that we can develop further opportunities, both here in Sacramento and across the state.”

“SMUD considers this investment in clean energy a down payment on a low-carbon future.” said Renee Taylor, SMUD Board President. “Projects such as these align with SMUD’s vision to promote responsible and sustainable economic development and renewable energy. SMUD has been a solar leader for more than two decades.”

The Depot Park Solar Project will save more than 3,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually, equivalent to:
•    Removing 696 vehicles from the road
•    Powering 728 average homes in California
•    Avoiding the need to burn 6,335 barrels of oil a year

“This project reflects our commitment to attracting clean technology industries and to lowering the carbon footprint of our own operations,” said Dick Fischer, president of U.S. National Leasing, owner and manager of Depot Park. “It serves as a shining example of both alternative energy ingenuity and green energy remediation of a previously contaminated Brownfield site. It promotes both the state’s climate change initiatives and the city’s effort to attract green industry businesses to Sacramento.”

The project’s success was assisted by development partners East West Bank; Chint Astroenergy, a China-based energy equipment manufacturer; SPG Solar, designed and installed the solar energy system; the California Governor’s Office of Economic Development, and the City of Sacramento and its Greenwise Initiative.

“We applaud U.S. National Leasing and Depot Park for investing in their future and the local community. This sizeable solar power system is maximizing land space that cannot be used for other applications by converting a Brownfield into a Brightfield and has created nearly 100 green jobs in the community,” said Chris Robine, president and CEO of SPG Solar.

“East West Bank is always in the forefront for advancing environmental sustainability. We have financed quite a few solar projects in California recently which helped improve energy efficiency and benefited the communities. We are pleased to partner with the public-private partnership team to bring the Depot Park solar project live,” said Don Danh, senior vice president and manager of emerging markets at East West Bank.

The Depot Park solar installation operates as a “peak shaving” efficiency project, leveling surges in electricity demand during peak usage times and reducing the Park’s overall demand for electricity from SMUD. Reducing this peak electricity demand during the hottest times of the year provides many benefits to the SMUD electricity grid, including reduced demand for power generated from fossil fuels and reduced investment in new sources of generation.

About Depot Park
The Sacramento U.S. Army Depot was constructed beginning in the mid – 1940’s as a central west coast U.S. Army logistical and electrical equipment manufacturing center. The U.S. Army closed the facility in 1994 and transferred it to the City of Sacramento for redevelopment. Financial difficulties caused the city’s first development partner, Packard Bell, to transfer the facility to U.S. National Leasing, LLC (USNL) in 1999. Since 2000 USNL has relieved the City of it’s commitment to invest $20 million in the closed Army facility and USNL has itself invested over $25 million in the redevelopment of the facility. As a result, the approximately $7.5 million the City owed the federal government for the purchase of the property has been forgiven. Today, there are nearly as many people employed at Depot Park as there were when the Army closed the facility in 1994. The Depot Park provides a home for over 120 commercial and industrial tenants within 3 million square feet of industrial warehouse, manufacturing and office space located on approximately 300 acres of land. More information is at  http://www.depotpark.com/.

About SPG Solar
SPG Solar is a leading national developer of distributed solar power systems for large commercial, industrial, government and public energy users. Headquartered in Novato, California, SPG Solar has been providing unique solar energy solutions to its customers for over a decade. The company prides itself on unique and custom solar solutions such as developing SPG Solar’s Floatovoltaics™, the world’s first floating solar system and offering SPG Solar’s Structured Finance, a team providing a full array of financial resources and expertise. SPG Solar currently manages more than 1,500 solar system installations from coast-to-coast. For more information on SPG Solar and distributed solar power, please visit www.spgsolar.com.

About East West
East West Bancorp is a publicly owned company with $20.7 billion in assets and is traded on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “EWBC”. The Company’s wholly owned subsidiary, East West Bank, is one of the largest independent commercial banks headquartered in California with over 130 locations worldwide, including the U.S. markets of California, New York, Georgia, Massachusetts, Texas and Washington. In Greater China, East West’s presence includes a full service branch in Hong Kong and representative offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Taipei. Through a wholly-owned subsidiary bank, East West’s presence in Greater China also includes full service branches in Shanghai and Shantou and representative offices in Beijing and Guangzhou. For more information on East West Bancorp, visit the Company’s website at www.eastwestbank.com.

Why Conservatives Are Bad on Energy: It’s All About the Costs

By Tom Rooney, CEO, SPG Solar

Conservatives,  let’s talk about energy. And why so many conservatives are so
wrong — so liberal, even — on wind and solar energy.

Let’s start with a recent editorial from the home of ‘free markets and free people,”
the Wall Street Journal. Photovoltaic solar energy, quoth the mavens, is a “speculative
and immature technology that costs far more than ordinary power.”

So few words, so many misconceptions. It pains me to say that because, like many
business leaders, I grew up on the Wall Street Journal and still depend on it.

But I cannot figure out why people who call themselves “conservatives” would
say solar or wind power is “speculative.” Conservatives know that word is usually
reserved to criticize free-market activity that is not approved by well, you
know who.

Today, around the world, more than a million people work in the wind and solar
business. Many more receive their power from solar.

Solar is not a cause, it is a business with real benefits for its customers.

Just ask anyone who installed their solar systems five years ago. Today, many
of their systems are paid off and they are getting free energy. Better still,
ask the owners of one of the oldest and most respected companies in America who
recently announced plans to build one of the largest solar facilities in the
country.

That would be Dow Jones, owners of the Wall Street Journal.

Now we come to “immature.” Again, the meaning is fuzzy. But in Germany, a country
1/3 our size in area and population, they have more solar than the United States.
This year, Germans will build enough solar to equal the output of three nuclear
power plants.

What they call immaturity our clients call profit-making leadership.

But let’s get to the real boogie man: The one that “costs far more than ordinary
power.”

I’ve been working in energy infrastructure for 25 years and I have no idea what
the WSJ means by the words “ordinary power.” But, after spending some time with
Milton Friedman whom I met on many occasions while studying for an MBA at the
University of Chicago, I did learn about costs.

And here is what every freshman at the University of Chicago knows: There is
a difference between cost and price.

Solar relies on price supports from the government. Fair enough — though its
price is falling even faster than fossil fuels are rising.

But if Friedman were going to compare the costs of competing forms of energy,
he also would have wanted to know the cost of “ordinary energy.” Figured on the
same basis. This is something the self-proclaimed conservative opponents of solar
refuse to do.

But huge companies including Wall Mart, IBM, Target and Los Gatos Tomatoes figured
it out. And last year so did the National Academy of Sciences. It produced a
report on the Hidden Costs of Energy that documented how coal was making people
sick to the tune of $63 billion a year.

And that oil and natural gas had so many tax breaks and subsidies that were so
interwoven for so long, it was hard to say exactly how many tens of billions
these energy producers received courtesy of the U.S. Taxpayer.

Just a few weeks ago, the International Energy Agency said worldwide, fossil
fuels receive $550 billion in subsidies a year — 12 times what alternatives
such as wind and solar get.

Neither report factored in Global Warming or the cost of sending our best and
bravest into harm’s way to protect our energy supply lines.

Whatever that costs, you know it starts with a T.

All this without hockey stick graphs, purloined emails or junk science.

When you compare the real costs of solar with the fully loaded real costs of
coal and oil and natural gas and nuclear power, apples to apples, solar is cheaper.

That’s not conservative. Or liberal. That comes from an ideology older and more
reliable than both of those put together: Arithmetic.