Solar Carport Canopies Headed to City Sports Complex | Glendale News Press | outlooknewspapers.com

Oct 17, 2024

Images courtesy GWP / The Glendale Sports Complex will be one of six sites included in the city's Solar Power Development Program and will have solar carport canopies installed in the parking lot.

The Glendale Sports Complex is one of six city-owned sites included Phase 1 of the City-Owned Solar Development Program organized by Glendale Water and Power.

According to a news release, construction on the two-phase project will begin between November and December and developers expect to complete it by February 2025.

The program includes installing solar carport canopies in the complex’s parking lot. Once completed, the canopies will harvest 1,343 kilowatts of clean solar energy per year.

"We wanted to prioritize the sites that would provide the most bang for our buck eventually, and that's one of those sites that provided a large capacity solar array," said Project Manager and Business Transformation Manager Bryan Salazar. He added that the project will include six electric vehicle chargers in the lot.

The project also includes the removal of 25 trees, with 15 native California trees replacing them. The developers will also plant another 20 trees offsite at Montrose Community Park and Emerald Isle Park.

The Sports Complex, together with the Glendale Community College Parking Lot 34, the Central Library, the Utility Operations Center and the GWP Perkins building, have contracts with Solar Optimum, a city-based solar energy company, while the sixth site — Brand Landfill — has a contract with Motive Energy Inc.

GWP has allocated $14 million plus an additional $2 million in contingency funds for all six sites. Salazar said the estimated cost of the Sports Complex is about $4.5 million.

He added that energy from the solar canopies will go directly to GWP's utility grid, while any excess energy collected will charge a 75-megawatt battery to be installed at the existing Grayson Power Plant.

On Thursday, GWP and Sports Complex management invited the community to discuss the project.

Several athletic organizations regularly use the complex, and Salazar told the News-Press, “There will be an impact to the operations, and that's one of the reasons why we are having this community meeting.” Unlike the other sites, he said, the complex “will probably have the most impact on the community because it's used so much by a lot of community members."

Sports Complex Community Services Manager Gabrielle Goglia said together with GWP, she notified both the neighborhood and regular facility users about the upcoming project and the meeting.

Goglia said while some people had positive comments about the project, some expressed concern about the temporary parking issues during construction. She stated that during Phase 1, 50 usable parking spaces out of 225 will be available, and during Phase 2, 175 parking spaces will be available.

She added that the facility is currently working to identify additional parking at the complex to offset overflow, including security guards to direct people during construction and setting up a dedicated parent drop-off and pickup zone at a safe location.

"Since we will have such limited parking, we are also going to be asking all of our participants to carpool or use ride share or drop off and come back and pick up at the end of the practices or games as much as possible in order to limit the number of cars that are staying at the complex during each reservation," Goglia said.

She added she recognizes that there will be temporary inconveniences during the project but that, ultimately, it will benefit the community.

"We have this very large parking lot that is all blacktop, so it does increase the heat at the location; just as a heat island effect," Goglia told the News-Press. "So, putting solar over it will both shade it but … [also generate] power that can go back into the city in order to help offset lack of power during heat waves or surges.”

Images courtesy GWP / The city's Solar Development Program, organized by Glendale Water and Power, is a two-phase construction project beginning by December and due to be completed by February 2025. The program includes installing solar carport canopies at the Glendale Sports Complex.