Redlands: Solar panels going in at sewer plant

Construction has begun on a photovoltaic array that will provide renewable energy to Redlands' wastewater treatment plant.

Use of the solar panels at the sewer plant at the end of Nevada Street will allow the city to be less reliant on electricity from Southern California Edison, city spokesman Carl Baker said. The savings are expected to amount to more than $36,000 annually, he said.

The project, expected to be completed by early May, is being built on a former brine pond that has been paved over and can't be used for other development, he said.

"This is a way of using that property in a productive fashion. Otherwise it would have sat fallow," he said.

The solar plant is the city's first and fits in with the Community Sustainability Plan, adopted March 1 by the City Council. The plan aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote growth based on sustainable business practices and energy-efficient technologies.

The solar project is being funded through an allocation grant from the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program, which is an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 funding source.

Additional funding is coming from the California Solar Incentive Program, which has allocated up to $250,000 worth of rebates based on the levels of energy produced by the panels over the first five years of use.

The wastewater treatment plant also is the site of a larger energy proposal. In February, the Redlands City Council agreed to negotiate with North American Biomass Co. for a project that would use gas from the wastewater treatment plant and adjacent landfill to generate electricity to power the wastewater plant.

That project also could include a gasification reactor to turn trash to energy.