Jul 28 2010
Richard M. Daley, Mayor of Chicago and John Rowe, Chairman and CEO of Exelon Corporation has dedicated the Exelon City Solar the leading urban solar power plant constructed in a 41 acre site at West Pullman area which was vacant for more than 30 years has been rehabilitated to produce clean energy for the benefit of the community.
The plant owned and operated by Exelon Generation constructed with an investment of $60 million, deploys 32,292 solar photovoltaic panels to convert solar energy to produce 14,000 MW/h, electricity per year which is sufficient to meet the electricity requirements of 1500 typical homes and is empowered to sell the surplus electricity it generates.
The construction started during the month July 2009 was completed during December 2009 and the rest was completed during the month to begin commercial production. The solar cells, solar panels and other solar systems incorporated at the Exelon City Solar site were conceived, designed, produced and installed by SunPower Corp.
The Exelon City Solar project stimulated growth in local economy and produced more than 200 jobs to create local employment to nearly 100 people. The project sourced nearly 44% of its contracts to local business and procured the requisite tubing materials in the vicinity.
The new Exelon City Solar facility is expected to avert approximately 31.2 million pounds of greenhouse gas emissions every year which is equivalent to the emissions produced by 2500 cars. The present facility encourages the company’s strategy to reduce approximately 15 million metric tons of green gas emissions every year by the year 2020 which is equivalent to eliminating approximately 3 million cars from use.