Intel Solar Panel Installations Highlight Commitment to Green Energy

Intel Solar Panel Installations Highlight Commitmentto Green EnergyBy Jeffrey Burt

Intel will have solar panels installed on the roof of the Robert N. Noyce Building, the chip maker’s corporate headquarters.

Intel’s Fab 11X facility was opened in 2002 at a cost of $2 billion, and has been updated several times as new generations of processors have been developed. Intel announced in 2009 that it was spending $2.5 billion to upgrade the plant once again as part of a plan to spend $7 billion to get its fabs outfitted to produce the new 32-nanometer chips.

Intel will begin installing photovoltaic solar panels on the roof of the building in February, with project going online around April.

The panels atop Intel’s building in Oregon will generate about 800 kilowatts of solar energy, the equivalent of the power used in about 86 homes.

The largest of the eight installations, the project in Folsom also is the only one that will not be placed on the roof of a building. Instead, the solar panels will be placed in a 6-acre field on the Intel campus.

This is another view of the Folsom solar field, which Intel officials say will generate about 1 megawatt of solar power. Intel expects to break ground in March, with solar power being generated by June.