Big news came out of San Francisco this morning, as Mayor Gavin Newsom announced the completion of the Sunset Reservoir Solar Project, which the city claims is the largest municipal solar installation in California. Recurrent Energy, the solar project developer that installed the 24,000-panel system and will own and operate it, took things a step further by calling it one of the largest such projects in the entire country.
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission will buy the power generated by the system from Recurrent Energy. The 5-megawatt (MW) system spans the length of approximately 12 football fields atop the city’s largest reservoir at 24th Street and Ortega.
San Francisco is home to what is arguably the most ambitious clean energy goal of any city in the country. The city is aiming to get all of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020. It may sound lofty, but San Francisco isn’t messing around — and this latest project proves it. Sunset Reservoir is expected to triple the amount of clean energy produced in the City by the Bay. The project created 71 “green collar” jobs, to boot.
The project was completed despite a labor dispute that last month threatened to push back the project’s completion date. City officials voted to replace laborers working on the project with trained electricians. But, faced with high unemployment rates, city officials had been keen to see general laborers hired as well. After about a day and a half bickering, the two sides kissed and made up — general laborers were back on the job, eventually resulting in the project’s completion and today’s announcement.
Will San Francisco be able to meet its 2020 target? That remains to be seen. But today’s news certainly won’t hurt the cause.

















SF-Biggest Muni Solar Project in Cali – http://www.getsolar.com/blog/san-francisco-completes-biggest-muni-solar-project-in-california/14943/