Four solar projects in the Eastern Municipal Water District (EMWD) in California’s Riverside County, each with about 1MW of installation capacity, have been completed and will be commissioned soon. The projects utilize SolarWorld’s 72-cell PV modules mounted on NEXTracker’s single-Valley solar tracking solution.

The four 1 MW systems are located at EMWD’s desalter facility in Menifee (community of Sun City) and regional waste water-treatment facilities in San Jacinto, Moreno Valley, and Perris Valley. They are able to offset the facilities’ peak power demand from the power grid.

“EMWD’s Board of Directors has adopted the strategic objective to provide service in a cost-effective and environmentally responsible manner,” EMWD General Manager Paul Jones said. “By investing in solar energy at many of our larger facilities, we are minimizing our carbon footprint and ensuring we stabilize costs for our ratepayers both now and well into the future.”

Stronghold Engineering Inc., based in Riverside, California, was EMWD’s selected design-build contractor on the four projects. Parsons Corp., based in Pasadena, California, supported the agency’s field engineering division on the suite of 1 MW solar renewable energy projects.

SolarWorld has supplied reliable systems for the state’s municipal and agricultural water organizations for more than a decade.