SolarCity Completes Installation of 18,000+ Solar Panels at Army Family Housing in Maryland and Colorado

SolarCity and Balfour Beatty Communities, as managing member of military housing projects located at Fort Detrick and Fort Carson have completed the installation of more than 18,000 solar panels at Army family housing.

The solar panels are installed on multi-family housing, community centers and maintenance facilities at Fort Detrick, Maryland and Fort Carson, Colorado, to provide power to approximately 1,200 housing units across the two bases.

SolarCity designed, built and will maintain the solar power systems, and the military housing project companies (jointly owned by the Army and Balfour Beatty Communities) purchase the power they produce at a discount to local utility rates to generate savings. The installations total more than 4.7 megawatts (MW) of solar power generation capacity—Fort Carson is the larger of the projects with a combined 3 MW of capacity and the Fort Detrick installations are at 1.7 MW.

“This partnership is yet another example of Fort Carson’s work to increase our nation’s security through energy efficiency and home-grown clean energy solutions,” said U.S. Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado. “It will support service members and their families while benefiting Colorado’s economy and environment.“

“We are very pleased to continue the expansion of our solar energy program for military housing,” said Chris Williams, president of Balfour Beatty Communities. “Launched at Fort Bliss in 2012, our innovative collaboration with SolarCity is now enabling the delivery of cleaner, less expensive energy to thousands of military families across the country.“

The installations are part of SolarCity’s SolarStrong project, the largest residential solar initiative in American history, which now provides power across 37 military installations.