Nov 01 - Oakland Tribune

Chevron is going solar.

The San Ramon-based energy company today unveils one of the nation's larger solar arrays, a nearly 1 megawatt system atop the U.S. Postal Services processing plant in West Oakland.

The solar array, combined with energy-efficiency improvements made throughout the cavernous sorting plant, will save the agency an easy $1million a year and cut power purchases from Pacific Gas & Electric Co. by nearly one-third. That's roughly 2.6 million 39- cent stamps.

But in terms of solar, the system soon will be merely mid-size: Projects coming online globally will dwarf it.

And in terms of Chevron's bottom line -- where oil reaped a $5 billion profit last quarter alone -- the $18 million project is peanuts. Yet it's a start.

The rooftop array covers two football fields. Together with heating and lighting improvements, the project will lower annual power usage by 11 million kilowatt hours, according to Chevron.

But Berkeley-based PowerLight Corp., which installed the solar network for Chevron and the Post Office, is finishing work on an 11 megawatt system in Portugal. And a 3 megawatt system is going up in Nevada for the Las Vegas Valley Water District.

The largest solar array in California is just over the hills -- a 1.2 megawatt system atop the Santa Rita jail in Dublin.

For the Post Office, a chance to couple more efficient heaters, lights and cooling systems with solar was a no-brainer.

"As energy prices keep going up, we look for ways to save -- to keep the value of the stamp (steady) for our customers," said Rick Blancas, the facilities' senior plant manager. "We took a look at some things we wanted to do to make the facility more comfortable for our employees and to save energy.

"This was a great way to do both."

Chevron has an entire division -- Chevron Energy Solutions Co. -- dedicated to auditing the energy use of a company or facility and finding ways to use less. It has spent $1.5billion on renewable fuels in the past five years.

Yet the company has also spent

$39million this fall to defeat an initiative -- Proposition 87 -- on next week's ballot that would tax oil development and invest the proceeds in alternative energies such as solar, wind and biofuels.

John Mahoney, Chevron Energy Solution's chief operating officer, saw no dichotomy between the two positions. "Chevron is really focused on trying create the energy for the next generation," he said. "It's going to take every molecule we can get -- alternative energy, energy efficiencies, biofuels -- to get there."

But a week before the election, the Yes on 87 folks weren't buying that. "The people of California cannot afford to wait around for the oil industry to break our dependence on oil," spokesman Yusef Robb said. "Because it's never going to happen."

Contact Douglas Fischer at dfischer@angnewspapers.com or (510) 208-6425.

(c) 2006 Oakland Tribune. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.