San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) has approved two 20-year power purchase agreements that will enable it to secure 90% of its electricity from solar, wind, and other renewables beginning in 2021.
“This establishes BART as the country’s most climate-forward transportation agency,” said board member Nick Josefowitz. “Not only will BART soon be powered by almost 100% renewable electricity, but we’re doing it cheaper than by buying fossil fuels.”
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The two contracts will cost about US$251 million over 20 years, but save BART $173 million compared to its current electricity supply mix, the San Francisco Examiner reports.
The power will come from a new wind farm build by NextEra Energy and a solar project owned by Recurrent Energy, both in Kern County. The agency currently uses 400,000 megawatt-hours of electricity per year, a bit more than the city of Alameda, California. (h/t to IEEFA for pointing us to this story)
