Siemens plans 1-megawatt solar energy system

Siemens Transportation Systems Inc. -- the nation's largest light-rail vehicles manufacturer -- will install a 1-megawatt solar energy system at its manufacturing plant in south Sacramento.

The company expects to complete the installation by late October.

The solar energy system, reportedly twice the size of any privately installed system in the four-county region, is expected to generate almost 29.7 million kilowatt hours of electricity over the first 20 years -- the equivalent of 150 average-size residential solar panel systems. The solar energy system would be equivalent to preventing 737 tons of carbon dioxide every year, or removing 7,933 cars from the roadways and planting about 200 acres of trees.

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"The ability to better utilize our site, achieve operational cost savings and reduce our energy footprint from the power grid were excellent reasons to move forward with bringing an alternative energy source to our manufacturing facility," Siemens Transportation president Oliver Hauck said in a news release Monday.

Siemens Building Technologies will install, service and maintain the poly-crystalline modules for the system. More than 5,175 solar modules will be installed to power the 1-megawatt system.