Completing the Installation of 10 Megawatts of Photovoltaic Solar Power at the Port of Los Angeles

The city of Los Angeles (City) Harbor Department has reached and exceeded its goal of installing 10 megawatts (MW) of photovoltaic (PV) solar power within the Port of Los Angeles (Port). The journey began in earnest in December 2007 and substantially ended in December 2020. The Harbor Department, its tenants, a solar power developer selected via request for proposal (RFP), and the city’s utility all contributed to reach the goal by constructing two dozen PV solar power systems (PV systems) within the Port. Two prior papers describe the Harbor Department’s effort up to the RFP. This paper will briefly recap that effort. However, the focus of this paper will be to describe the effort undertaken by the Harbor Department and its solar power developer to meet the goals of the RFP, which led to the construction of five rooftop PV systems and five canopy PV systems to reach almost 12 MW of PV solar power port-wide. This paper will attempt to summarize three years of construction. Topics for discussion include the transfer of ownership of these 10 PV systems from one solar power developer to another before construction began, permitting and approvals, baseline contamination studies, substructure investigation, array installation, foundation installation for canopy PV systems, interconnection to the city’s utility, commissioning, and commercial operation. Lastly, key lessons learned will be shared. The goal of this paper is, together with the previous two papers on this subject, to pass on to the reader some of the hard earned knowledge gained by the Harbor Department as it worked to accomplish its goal of 10 MW of PV solar power so that they too may confidently attempt the journey.