| Location |
| 24662 County Road 102 |
| Website |
![[WWW]](http://wikispot.org/wiki/eggheadbeta/img/sycamore-www.png){kind=small} http://www.pvusasolar.com |
Davis and Renewable Ventures co-own an 86-acre solar farm just north of the city limits, which was part of a Photovoltaics for Utility Systems Applications (PVUSA) project sponsored by government and private industry. It was constructed in 1986 by PG&E, sold to the California Energy Commission in 1997, then sold to Davis in 2001 for a symbolic $1. Originally a research facility, it was reactivated in 2003 to generate power for the city and alleviate the recent energy crisis. Given the suspension of electricity wheeling (sale to specific customers with delivery through the grid), the legal mechanism through which this power is being delivered to the utility grid turned out to require special legislation that mentions PVUSA by name. That legislation allows various loads throughout the city of Davis to be treated as though they were all located at the PVUSA site, thus pretending that they are net metered. This leaves Davis free to compensate Renewable Ventures in a mutually-agreeable manner in spite of the no-wheeling rules. The alternative to special legislation would have involved a wholesale delivery arrangement with PG&E with considerably lower energy valuation than net metering offers, which would likely have left it offline indefinitely.
The facility can currently generate ~650kW with an annual output of 1,300 MWh. For reference, an average house uses ~1,000 kWh/month, which means about 110 homes can be powered by the PVUSA alone. Note that not all 86 acres are used for solar panels. There are plans to expand to 1MW and beyond as aging equipment is replaced.
Green certificates (a.k.a Tradable Renewable Certificates, or TRCs) can be purchased at http://www.pvusasolar.com that guarantee 750kWh of renewable energy will be generated for every certificate you buy. (These are of greatest interest to organizations that have to meet "clean power mix" mandates, though any environmentally-concerned individual or organization may purchase them.)
Through a cooperative agreement intended to assist continued development of the solar electric power market, three "residential scale" grid-connected PV systems were installed on an existing mounting structure at the PVUSA power plant in 2004. Reports on the expected and measured performance of these systems are available at http://pierminigrid.showdata.org.
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