MCE Solar One Recognized in the Environmental Project Category in Partnership with City of Richmond and RichmondBUILD

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 22, 2020

MCE Press Contact:
Jenna Famular, Communications Manager
(925) 378-6747 | jfamular@mcecleanenergy.org

SAN RAFAEL and CONCORD, Calif. — MCE will be the recipient of Acterra’s 2020 Business Environmental Award in the Environmental Project category, along with the City of Richmond, CA and RichmondBUILD, for its partnership on the MCE Solar One project, a 10.5 megawatt solar array developed on a brownfield site owned by Chevron. Since construction was completed in 2018, Solar One has produced enough energy each year to power approximately 4,000 homes.

Acterra is a Palo Alto-based nonprofit that promotes climate change solutions in energy and other fields. This year marks the 30th anniversary of Acterra’s business award, which “honors the accomplishments of organizations with innovative sustainable programs.”*

“The Acterra judging committee was impressed by the collaborative effort involving MCE and the City of Richmond,” said Nicole Angiel, Acterra’s Director of Sustainability. “Not only does the project provide a green energy option for rate payers in the East Bay, its development generated fixed-term, much-needed, high-paying jobs for Richmond residents.”

MCE Solar One was conceived by the Richmond community to integrate renewable energy and solar facilities in the Chevron Modernization Project. MCE teamed up with RichmondBUILD – which has successfully graduated hundreds of students and placed an impressive 80% of its graduates into well-paying jobs – to train and hire its skilled local graduates for the project. The 2020 Acterra Business Environmental Award will be the third award MCE Solar One has received since its unveiling in 2018.

“RichmondBUILD was very excited to be able to partner with MCE on this project along with the City of Richmond, sPower, Chevron, and Cenergy Power,” said Fred Lucero, Program Manager at RichmondBUILD. “This project represents the largest public-private solar partnership in the Bay Area and provided our program participants – who are from low-income households and largely minorities – with training in green-collar jobs that will help build a brighter future for themselves and their families.”

The Solar One project eliminates 3,234 metric tons of carbon dioxide each year and repurposed 60 acres of a remediated brownfield site while supporting over 340 jobs with a 50% local hire requirement.

“MCE Solar One produces enough renewable energy to serve nearly six percent of Richmond’s electricity load,” said Mayor Tom Butt of Richmond. “I’m proud that we’re not only generating electricity close to home, but this project has also given us a way to model the types of collaborations we need – from the public and private sector, as well as local unions – to combat climate change.”

MCE would also like to congratulate the other award winners for their achievements in sustainability and the environment.

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About MCE: As California’s first Community Choice Aggregation Program, MCE is a groundbreaking, not-for-profit, public agency that has been setting the standard for energy innovation in our communities since 2010. MCE offers cleaner power at stable rates, significantly reducing energy-related greenhouse emissions and enabling millions of dollars of reinvestment in local energy programs. MCE is a load-serving entity supporting a 1,000 MW peak load. MCE provides electricity service to more than 480,000 customer accounts and more than one million residents and businesses in 34 member communities across four Bay Area counties: Contra Costa, Marin, Napa and Solano. For more information about MCE, visit mceCleanEnergy.org.

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