(TNS) — It was April 2006, and the mood was celebratory at Napa Valley College. A crowd had assembled to toast the school’s new solar field — 5,600 photovoltaic panels arranged in neat rows across five acres of floodplain the school said couldn’t be used for much else beyond hay cultivation.

Solar installations are ubiquitous now, on desert plains, winery properties and carports. In 2006, they looked like the future.

Rep. Mike Thompson addressed the onlookers that day, calling the project “a model and inspiration.” Then two students flipped a symbolic power switch, marking what was seen as the beginning of a new energy era for the campus.

At the time, the photovoltaic array was the fifth largest in the United States. The system could generate about 1.2 megawatts of power — roughly 40 percent of the campus’ electricity needs — with panels that automatically pivoted with the sun. Officials estimated it would shave about $300,000 a year from PG&E bills.

NVC proudly featured the solar field on the cover of its 2005-06 Report to the Community. Accolades followed. A Korean TV crew came to film a segment in spring 2007, and the 2007-08 Napa County Grand Jury report commended the college for the solar installation as well as a new cooling system that worked by circulating chilled liquid, saying both could serve as national models for reducing emissions.

Some reports predicted a 25-year lifespan for the system. Others said 30. But roughly 15 years after that ribbon-cutting moment, the panels went dark...

...For a while, everything seemed to work smoothly. A 2013 college report on Measure N projects showed the array producing the promised 40 percent of campus electricity, cutting carbon emissions by about 600 tons per year.

Then performance began to slip. By 2017, output had fallen to about one-third of the campus’ needs, according to a facilities master plan from that year. Maintenance costs climbed as the system aged.

In 2018, SunPower discovered a fault in the wiring and charged the college $160,000 for repairs. By late that year, a report listed the array’s “useful life” as nearly expired, and administrators floated the idea of relocating it to rooftops or parking lots to free up the land.

THE SWITCH TO FUEL CELLS

As PG&E rates rose and solar output fell, the college sought other solutions. In August 2020, it entered into an agreement with San Jose-based Bloom Energy to install a fuel cell on campus. The system runs on natural gas but converts it through a chemical reaction that’s more efficient and less polluting than burning fuel in a conventional generator.

Installed in early 2021, the fuel cell was expected to save the college more than $3 million over 15 years. Bloom would own, operate and maintain it, while the college paid for the energy it produced.

NVC spokesperson Jenna Sanders said the solar panels were decommissioned when the fuel cell came online because they had started leaking, posing a fire hazard. When the college sought repairs, she said, the company responsible for maintenance — SunPower — had gone out of business and was unavailable. “The solar field was deactivated at some point and has not provided any electrical support to the campus in recent years,” she said...