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Sierra Pacific Power officials announced today that photovoltaic (PV) modules installed on the roof of Sierra Pacific Power's Transportation Services Building in Reno are expected to supply up to half of the building's energy needs. According to Greg Kern, director of energy efficiency for the utility, the panels will begin producing 75,000 watts of electricity starting this week.

The installation, located at 295 Edison Way, will produce the same amount of electricity as the solar panels installed in the fall of 2006 at Sierra Pacific's office building on Neil Road in Reno. They are two of the largest solar installations in northern Nevada, Kern said. (PV panels, usually produced from silicon, convert sunlight into electricity.)

The Sierra Pacific solar electric system is unique because the 410 solar modules are designed specifically for use on flat roofs and they are not mechanically attached to the roof. However, they are designed to resist the high winds that frequently blow through the Truckee Meadows, Kern said. The modules are tilted toward the south at a 10 degree angle.

To demonstrate renewable energy, Sierra Pacific has also installed a 10,000-watt wind turbine at its Neil Road building. In addition, the utility's sister company in Las Vegas, Nevada Power, has solar panels at a southern Nevada power plant that generate 75,000 watts of electricity, and a rooftop installation at its operations center that generates 115,000 watts of power. The latest Reno solar facility was installed by Premier Power Renewable Energy, a leading global provider of small to large-scale solar power systems.

Sierra Pacific and Nevada Power offer a statewide program called SolarGenerations that provides cash rebates to electric customers who use PV technology to generate electricity. Residential customers, small businesses, schools and government agencies are eligible to participate. Since the start of the program in 2003, approximately 260 SolarGenerations projects, capable of producing over 1 million watts of electricity, have been completed. For more information about solar power, visit the program website atwww.SolarGenerations.com.