According to the latest reports, Suniva, a high-efficiency crystalline silicon cells and modules manufacturer in the United States will power Georgia’s largest solar canopy at the Laredo Bus Facility in Decatur, GA. This project will be the second-largest canopy with a power of 1.2MW in the U.S. located at a U.S. transit system. On November 18th, 2011, The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony and raised the project’s curtain.
The chief marketing officer for Suniva, Bryan Ashley, said that it is proud to say that Suniva’s cells and modules manufactured in Georgia will be used to power the Solar canopy at the Laredo Bus Facility. He added that this is a huge project in Georgia, which will generate enough electricity to compensate for most of the facility’s annual electricity consumption.
In 2009, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s Transit Investments approved a $ 10.8 million federal grant to MARTA for Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reduction (TIGGER) Program. This program really worked and created new “green collar” jobs in metro Atlanta due to this; the company is harassing clean, renewable solar power to operate the Laredo Bus Facility. The project will incorporate 4,888 PV panels and will equal the same way of protecting the environment as planting more than 285 acres of trees a year.
MARTA Board Chairman, Jim Durrett said that “we are excited that the solar technology used to manufacture the canopy for the bus facility was born out of Georgia Tech’s PV lab. To be able to use home-grown technology to power this landmark project is a clear demonstration of the clean energy innovation and leadership found here in Georgia”. He added that this project would open the way for MARTA’s growing sustainability program, emphasising clean fuel buses, water reclamation, and harvesting operations and waste recycling programs.
