Developed by Chelsea Investment Corporation, Fairbanks Ridge Family Apartments is a 204–unit affordable housing development in the Black Mountain Ranch community of San Diego, California. Chelsea Investment Corporation builds, owns and operates affordable housing projects, offering a 50–year lease to tenants. Chelsea applies reliable renewable energy technologies to its construction projects. The Fairbanks Ridge development is the most recent example of its use of solar design, and the third project it has completed with Borrego Solar. Fairbanks Ridge Family Apartments provides 2– and 3–bedroom apartments and numerous amenities for residents, including a pool, tot lots, a half basketball court and a computer room

Solar power contributes to their goal of providing reduced–rate housing that is economically and environmentally sustainable. While most houses and businesses are drawing more and more power from an overwhelmed utility grid, the Fairbanks Ridge Family Apartments use solar energy to reduce their electric bills.

Challenges

Issues of weight and available space dictated that the system be installed on carports within the development, rather than on apartment building rooftops as initially planned. This meant that electrical power had to be routed from 20 carports to 14 apartment buildings, creating complex wiring needs.

Solution

The system consists of 1080 Sharp 170 Watt solar panels mounted on carports around the perimeter of the development. Borrego Solar’s engineers designed a complex series of “conduit superhighways“ leading from the 20 carports, with branches connecting to the 14 apartment buildings spread out around the site. The trenches average 2 feet deep, with over half a mile of trenching in total.

The solar panels produce Direct Current (DC) power, which passes through 30 SMA inverters to provide Alternating Current (AC) power to the facility. This power is identical to the power the facility receives from SDG&E, and is therefore able to power any appliance on site.

Financial Benefits

The Fairbanks Ridge Affordable Housing system will produce roughly 20,800 kilowatt–hours of electricity per month, with an annual savings of approximately $37,500: enough energy to power approximately 50 single family homes. Any excess power not needed on site will spin the meter backwards as it is fed into the grid. SDG&E will buy back this extra power and allow the housing complex to reduce or even eliminate its energy bill. As an added bonus, the extra electricity will help power other homes and businesses during times of peak energy usage, helping to avert brownouts or blackouts.