Napa Valley College is not far down the road from me, a small community college in the wine country of California. So let me lay out the sunny saga of Napa Valley College’s solar field—a green fantasy that was supposed to be a model for the nation, and ended up as a million-dollar weed patch. This is the kind of story that only seems shocking if you weren’t paying attention to how the solar “revolution” actually works: splashy ribbon cuttings, loud political speeches, wild promises…and then, about a decade later, the sound of crickets and the sight of public money quietly composting.
Flash back to 2006. Napa Valley College, fueled by $7.5 million (half from taxpayers via a bond, half from utility incentives paid for by us poor ratepayers), launches what is then the nation’s fifth-largest solar project. Local and national press swarm, a congressman champions the cause, and the administrators beam with pride. This masterpiece was going to power 40% of the campus, save $300,000 a year, run “virtually maintenance-free” for 25 or 30 years, and serve as a postcard for college sustainability reports everywhere.
For a few years, everything hums along. The thing works. Solar output looks impressive in the glossy pamphlets; the college basks in eco-glory.
But then, reality shows up on the ledger. By 2017—barely a decade on—output has cratered, maintenance costs are climbing, and the system is barely limping along. In 2018, SunPower (the system’s new corporate overlord after a straight-out-of-silicon-valley company shuffle) discovers major faults and charges an extra $160,000 to patch the system together. No one seems to know—or wants to explain—when the panels finally gave up the ghost, but sometime between 2019 and 2021, the weeds won. SunPower goes bankrupt and vanishes, leaving the school with zero support, zero warranty, and a $7.5 million monument to wishful thinking.
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