The YMCA of San Diego County wanted to offset its electricity costs and increase its commitment to sustainability—while reinvesting the savings to better serve its community members.
Working with the team at Home Energy Systems, a SunPower Elite Dealer, the Y chose to install the SunPower® HelixTM solar solution across the roofs and parking lots of six campuses, for a total system size of nearly 2.5 MW.
The six solar installations are expected to provide savings of approximately $80,000 annually, which will be reinvested into programs and services for area youth and families.
Luis D’Carpio
Vice President of Facilities & Sustainability YMCA of San Diego County
The YMCA of San Diego County has a mission to improve the health and well- being of everyone it serves. As the second largest YMCA organization in the nation, the nonprofit provides a variety of programs and services focused on youth development, healthy living and social responsibility, serving 400,000 people throughout the greater San Diego area.
In 2017, the organization’s leadership decided to make a strategic commitment to solar energy as part of its broader goal of strengthening the community. The Y installed solar rooftop and carport systems on six of its facilities throughout the county.
With nearly 4,000 high-performance SunPower® solar panels on its rooftops and parking lots, the solar project is expected to save the Y about $80,000 per year, and produce enough energy to offset 80-90 percent of the Y’s electricity use. Financed through a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), the nonprofit did not have to invest any money upfront, but locked in low guaranteed electricity rates for the next 20 years. PPAs are ideal for nonprofits and other organizations who prefer that their resources directly serve their constituents and not be tied up in long-term capital projects.
In the first year of operation alone, the combined systems will generate more than 4 MWh of electricity—the equivalent of powering 378 homes with electricity for one year.1
For the 5,000 people employed at the YMCA of San Diego County, supporting solar is a point of pride. And for the families who park under the solar canopies, the extra shade is a welcome reprieve from the Southern California sun.
Net Energy Metering 3.0 (NEM 3.0) is the incoming law created by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). The new tariffs and fees will impact both residential and commercial solar systems built in California.
As this notice is posted in November of 2022, the Proposed Decision from the CPUC outlining the proposed NEM 3.0 terms is expected soon. This comes after a year’s delay. Once the new agreement is finalized and passed into law, there will exist a designation of the deadline under which new systems will continue to qualify for NEM 2.0 rates.
The new NEM 3.0 rates will be designed to lower the value of electricity during the daytime hours, when solar is producing, and increase the value of electricity during the evening hours, when solar homes and businesses purchase electricity. In short, NEM 3.0 will create a “sell low, buy high” proposition to new solar system owners.
To Californians looking to install a solar system on their home or commercial building, the NEM 2.0 rates will be preferred. As of this post, the solar industry does not know the details of how different the NEM 3.0 rates will be from the NEM 2.0 rates.
Please use the HES Solar website as a resource to learn more, and please take our offer to speak with an HES Solar Energy Consultant at no obligation.
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