Location: Ellensburg, Kittitas County, WA System Size: 500 kW Energy Output: 650,718 kWh per year Results: CO2 emissions reduced by 656,033 pounds/year (equivalent to 772,604 car miles/year) Success Story PDF

	"This large-scale demonstration project will give our company, and our state, a better understanding of solar power's viability here in the Pacific Northwest." - Stephen P. Reynolds; Chairman, President and CEO

Puget Sound Energy (PSE) had already taken a positive and practical approach towards achieving their goal of securing 10 percent of its power supply from renewable sources by 2013. The 229-megawatt Wild Horse Wind Project in Kittitas County is a proven renewable-energy success, serving 76,000 of the utility's electricity users in Western Washington. Online since 2006, Wild Horse offered an opportunity beyond wind: the infrastructure in place would permit development of solar energy to complement the installation's 229 MW of wind-generated energy.

Rising consumer demand and expiring power purchase contracts require PSE to keep seeking innovative solutions to its need for expanded supplies of clean power. At Wild Horse, the hardware was in place, and the sunlight in the area is equivalent to that of Houston, Texas. The challenge was to build a solar installation on a rocky shrub-steppe habitat 4,000 feet above sea level.

EI Solutions competed and won among 12 finalists to design and build PSE's Wild Horse solar installation. The $3.7 million project will use 2,700 panels mounted on a two-level site. Solar and wind complement each other at Wild Horse; typically, wind is most productive at night, while solar peaks during midday. The project is the largest solar installation in the Pacific Northwest, and a demonstration of the greater potential for solar in the region.

In the short term, by integrating solar into Wild Horse's renewable portfolio, PSE can avoid additional infrastructure costs, harvest more of the site's energy-producing capabilities, and create power to meet the needs of 300 homes. The 500 kW generated will avoid over 650,000 pounds of carbon emissions from fossil fuels that would be needed to generate the same amount of power. Ten percent of the panels will be manufactured locally, leveraging Washington's solar talent and jump-starting its solar industry.