On Tuesday, Mayor Gavin Newsom switched on California’s largest municipal solar project. The irony of this, of course, is that the Sunset is one of the foggiest, cloudiest places in the entire city. So…it may be large, but who knows how much solar energy it will actually be able to harness. But…we give the city an ‘A’ for effort.

According to the Mayor’s office, “With nearly 24,000 solar panels installed on top of the North Basin of the Sunset Reservoir, the new array is online and generates up to 5 megawatts daily of clean, 100 percent renewable energy. Over the 25-year lifetime of the project, the Sunset Reservoir will reduce carbon emissions by approximately 80,000 metric tons, while helping to satisfy the diverse clean energy needs of the City’s municipal buildings and facilities.

The Sunset Reservoir Solar Project triples San Francisco’s municipal solar generating capacity from 2 megawatts to over 7 megawatts. The new solar array covers an area the size of approximately 12 football fields and is California’s largest municipal, urban solar array, providing clean electricity for our City’s municipal facilities including San Francisco General Hospital, Muni, San Francisco International Airport, police stations, and fire houses.”

On another note…did you know that “All public transportation in San Francisco runs on electricity or biodiesel.”? Really? That’s pretty cool.

• Tag: city, municipal projects, Solar