MARINE CORPS LOGISTICS BASE BARSTOW, Calif. -- Another solar farm has opened to add to the arsenal of renewable energy generators aboard Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow, California.
On Oct. 22, base commander Col. Craig C. Clemans cut the ribbon to open the nearly 10-acre solar farm aboard the Yermo Annex of MCLB Barstow.
Present for the event were U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Jamie Rivas, Public Works Officer; Anthony Mesa, Energy Manager; Steven Smith, David Koch and David Base, Energy Systems Group; and Alicia Florez, Engineering Supervisor, Production Plant Barstow, Marine Depot Maintenance Command.
Colonel Clemans addressed the group present for the ribbon-cutting, discussing the Energy Savings Performance Contract (ESPC) entered into by the base and ESG to build the solar farm.
“The ESPC is one of the ways installations are able to fund energy projects and also at the same time upgrade infrastructure,” Clemans said. “The goal of the ESPC is to achieve energy cost savings. A huge benefit of the ESPC is that the current funds spent on utility bills are saved through these guaranteed energy savings.”
That savings is significant over the 22-year life of the contract, Clemans noted, with savings of more than $846,000 and nearly 6,800,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity not drawn from utility providers in the first year alone.
The solar project that just opened cost more than $25,000,000 and 10 months for ESG to build, but the total electricity savings for the life of the contract will be $26,000,000.
Tony Mesa noted that altogether around MCLB Barstow solar photovoltaic panels installed on the Nebo side of the base, an older solar PV installation on the Yermo side, a 100 kWh solar installation on the roof of Production Plant Barstow; smaller solar projects powering the dip tank and machine shop at PPB; and the Wind Turbine aboard the Nebo side generate 3,329 kWh of electricity available for use by the base at any time.
"The projects also help us achieve a 34 percent reduction in public utility-generated electricity, which significantly contributes to progress
across all three pillars of energy security," Mesa said.
"Energy security is a collective term that includes energy reliability, energy resilience and energy efficiency," he explained. "The bottom line is
this project makes us and our tenant organizations better able to continue our mission in the event of a disruption to the public utility grid."
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