Solar energy farms proposed for Fresno area
By Tim Sheehan | Fresno Bee
A pair of solar farms proposed for the Panoche Hills of western Fresno County and eastern San Benito County could become the biggest installations of their kind in the world.
Solargen Energy Inc., based in Cupertino, has submitted an application to Fresno County planners for its Panoche Ranch Solar Farm on 2,600 acres of rangeland near the Little Panoche Reservoir. Solar photovoltaic panels spread across the acreage would produce up to 250 megawatts of electricity.
A few miles down Little Panoche Road, across the San Benito County line, Solargen has proposed an even larger project in the Panoche Valley, where solar panels could occupy as much as 10,000 acres and generate up to 1,000 megawatts of power.
If - and it's a big if - the projects are built, the 1,250 megawatts of electricity generated would dwarf the output of any other solar photovoltaic installation currently operating anywhere in the world. The largest such project now is a 266-acre spread of panels near Olmedilla de Alarcon, Spain, which produces 60 megawatts of electricity in peak daylight hours.
Solargen's plans are the latest - and largest - to emerge to harvest Central California's abundant sunlight to generate electricity without creating pollution.
Read the complete story at fresnobee.com
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