A 2 million-square-foot rooftop solar array that will power Los Angeles homes with clean energy while generating 500 new local jobs in low-income neighborhoods near the port of Los Angeles. This will be the largest solar FEED-in Tariff (FiT) solar project in the nation this year.

The project on the roofs of the Westmont Drive buildings will generate 16.4MW of solar energy for Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) customers, more than triple the capacity of the next largest FiT project, located in East Los Angeles.

The Westmont project will produce enough clean energy to power 5,000 Los Angeles homes, and in the process eliminate carbon emissions equivalent to taking 6,000 cars off the streets. Over the life of the 20-year lease, it’s estimated the project will generate $76 million in revenue from clean energy sold back to LADWP, with 85 to 90 percent of revenues going back to the building owner.

PermaCity CEO Jonathan Port announced the groundbreaking solar project at the 10th anniversary of the Los Angeles Business Council’s Sustainability Summit, where hundreds of leaders from across the public and private sectors gathered to discuss the most pressing sustainability issues of our day, including solar power, sustainable water and energy and climate change.

The Westmont project is the latest, and largest, project to take advantage of LADWP’s FiT program, which enables building owners to turn their rooftops into solar power plants and sell the power they generate for distribution on the City’s power grid. The result is zero-carbon, renewable energy that also supports local jobs and fuels private investment.