SunPower announced the beginning of the construction of six solar power systems, totaling 11.4MWdc, for powering public facilities operated by the County of Santa Clara, California. The systems are expected to become operational by the end of 2016.

"SunPower works with public agencies that require innovative, effective approaches to managing energy costs without reducing services in their communities," said Howard Wenger, SunPower president, business units. "We are particularly pleased to serve the interests of the County of Santa Clara, where SunPower has been headquartered for 30 years, with high performance SunPower® solar power systems that will maximize long-term value."

The County is going to own all of the systems as well as their associated renewable energy credits. So far, SunPower has approximately 45MW of large commercial and public agency solar power systems operating or under contract in Santa Clara County.

As for the projects, five of them will be installed at five respective county sites, while the sixth one will be a solar carport. SunPower will supply its high efficiency PV modules for all of the PV systems.

To fund the project, the County of Santa Clara secured U.S. Department of Treasury clean renewable energy bonds (CREBs), which are available to certain entities, primarily in the public sector, to finance renewable energy projects. California's net energy metering (NEM) and RES-BCT programs also helped make ownership of on-site solar power systems accessible for the county.