EPA chief, S.F. Bay Area leaders celebrate Renewable Energy Procurement Project

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy joined San Francisco Bay Area leaders and business executives at West Winton Landfill in Hayward on Wednesday to celebrate the fledgling Regional Renewable Energy Procurement Project (R-REP), a partnership of 19 local public agencies to develop discounted renewable energy.

The project is the nation’s largest collaborative between government agencies in terms of siting renewable energy at their facilities, encompassing 186 of them. All told, R-REP is expected to generate 31 megawatts of solar power and could lead to taxpayer savings of more than $100 million in energy expenditures.

West Winton Landfill will be one of the project’s crowning achievements. Currently a capped waste-disposal site, the landfill will be transformed through the installation of roughly 19,000 photovoltaic solar panels that will generate 6 megawatts of power, or nearly 20 percent of the collaborative total output.

McCarthy was joined at the celebration by local government leaders, including Alameda County Supervisor for District 2 Richard Valle, Alameda County Administrator Susan Muranishi and Fremont Mayor Bill Harrison, as well as renewable-energy industry executives, including SunEdison President and CEO Ahmad Chatila and Joint Venture Silicon Valley President and CEO Russell Hancock.