Victor Valley College in California is getting attention in the news as it follows the trend of other schools in the state who have started to work on their own solar farm. Many colleges in California are well positioned to use photovoltaic power plants to help feed the power needs for the school. SolFocus is partnering with Victor Valley College to build a massive one-megawatt solar farm in Victorville, California. The community is northeast of Los Angeles in the desert, so it receives an abundant amount of sunlight each year which will fuel the high-efficiency solar cells being installed on campus. This project is using a more expensive method that uses small mirrors to concentrate sunlight onto solar cells. Despite costing more money upfront, the project will use far less silicon and produce more electricity than the conventional solar cells used today.
Another impressive feature of the SolFocus system is that the solar panels are mounted on trackers which follow the position of the sun during the day to ensure that the maximum amount of sunlight is being absorbed. Victor Valley College went through a detailed review process before they decided on SolFocus, and the estimates are that the completed solar farm will supply about 30% of the electricity that the school uses each year. The six acre project has a target completion date of May, which will allow Victor Valley to capture a massive amount of sunlight during the summer so they can see how beneficial this solar farm will be to the school.
