Cool Earth Solar, a leading Bay Area SunPower Commercial Dealer, recently completed the installation of a 340-kilowatt high efficiency solar power system at Valley Christian Center (VCC), a church, as well as a preschool and K-12 school in Dublin, Calif. The installation was completed on VCC's pre-school, elementary school and high school roofs, and is expected to provide enough power to completely offset VCC's electricity bill.
VCC chose to finance their solar system with a power purchase agreement (PPA), enabling the church and schools to purchase solar energy at a rate lower than traditional electricity, resulting in immediate monthly savings. Cool Earth Solar also replaced over 1,000 fluorescent lights with new LED lights and state of the art lighting controls throughout VCC's campus, which are expected to reduce VCC's lighting electricity use by 75 percent.
According to VCC's Lead Pastor, Roger Valci, "After doing the initial assessment, we realized that solar could significantly cut our energy bill while benefiting the environment." Jennifer Davis, VCC's Executive Pastor added, "We awarded Cool Earth Solar with the solar project because we trust Rob [Cool Earth Solar CEO], as not only a person, but a leader. We are really proud to showcase our newly installed solar project and to serve as an environmental example to our community."
The equipment used included high-efficiency SunPower X-Series 327 Watt and SunPower E-Series 435 Watt solar panels, SMA inverters, and an Iron Ridge mounting system.
VCC will see lower utility bills with their new solar project and plans to use the money that they would have spent on electricity to continue giving back to the community as they have for the last 54 years.