The San Juan Water District has begun using solar panels to make clean energy and save money. This green project supplies an estimated 90 percent of the electric power that SJWD consumes in part to treat American River water that the Fair Oaks Water District buys.

For rate payers, the energy savings from the solar panels will shave $12 million from SJWD costs over the next 25 years, about $480,000 annually. A Pacific Gas & Electric rebate of $1.9 million will help pay the SJWD’s $5.5 million solar project cost, thanks to the California Solar Initiative program, which the California Public Utilities Commission oversees.

The SJWD’s solar panels were designed and built by SunPower Corp., which created 40 construction jobs, according to Ingrid Ekstrom of the San. Jose-based company. The panels use a GPS system to position towards the sun throughout the day to increase energy capture by up to 25 percent versus systems with stationary panels.

Shauna Lorance is general manager for the SJWD. The solar project was in development for just under a year—from approval and design to construction - before coming on line, she said.  

Further, the solar panels cut 1.5 million pounds of carbon dioxide emitted annually, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. That emissions reduction is equal to 3,525 fewer cars driving on state roads every year through 2036.

It is worth noting California is home to nearly 20 million cars. In 2008, there were 19,706,000 registered private autos in the state versus 19,829,000 such registered vehicles statewide in 2007, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.   

Will Rogers Middle School in Fair Oaks will get an energy efficient 1,920-square-foot, modular weight room, designed by VUMA, when the fall semester begins for the San Juan Unified School District in late August. The room, via solar panels, generates enough electricity for lighting and low voltage needs.

VUMA partnered with ZETA Communities, a green construction firm with a work force of 55 based at McClellan Business Park. In producing the weight room and other modular structures, ZETA strives to reduce the waste products that a typical building site generates, according to Shilpa Sankaran, who co-founded the San Francisco-based and is the current marketing and communications director. Instead of discarding drywall, paint and wood scraps in production, ZETA reuses and recycles such building materials on its factory floor.

The total price tag for the weight room at Will Rogers, which includes all site costs, is $589,000, said Trent Allen, SUJSD communications head.

Between 2003 and 2010, the Sacramento metro area, which includes Fair Oaks, saw the number of green jobs grew from 23,462 to 37,319, or 6.9 percent, according to a recent report from the Brookings Institute and Battelle’s Technology Partnership Practice.

Asked to state the names of green firms and the number of their employees based in Fair Oaks, Jonathan Rothwell, a co-author of the Brookings-Battelle report, declined. He cited privacy concerns related to companies owned by Dun and Bradstreet, the report’s data source.   

Green employment accounts for 4.5 percent of the labor force in the Sacramento metro area, which ranked 12th in the number of such jobs compared with other U.S metro areas in 2010.