Riverside, Calif. – Riverside Public Utilities (RPU) is currently seeking statements of qualifications from companies who can design, build, and operate a solar energy generation facility on top of the city’s former Tequesquite Landfill.

The utility anticipates that the project site - which stopped receiving waste in 1985, was fully capped, and then decommissioned in 1998 - could accommodate a solar generation system of 5 to 10 megawatts capacity that would feed directly into Riverside’s power grid, further adding to the city’s growing renewable energy portfolio.

Riverside had been taking steps toward building a solar project on the site itself, but decided instead to re-direct part of the project funding into its popular solar rebate programs, which to date have assisted in the construction of more than 300 residential and commercial solar generation systems citywide.

“This project provides us with a unique opportunity to build a large-scale solar generation facility within our own service territory,” said RPU General Manager David H. Wright. “Since the project will be built on city land and connect directly to our own power grid we will be able to avoid many of the costs and issues we normally would encounter when importing renewable energy resources.”

RPU’s objective of its initial Request for Qualifications (RFQ) is to identify experienced companies who can later participate in a Request for Proposals to build and operate the solar plant, sell the associated capacity, energy, and renewable energy credits to the utility, and eventually sell the plant over to the city.

A conference call between RPU and prospective respondents is scheduled for Wednesday, November 9, while the deadline for companies to submit their statements of qualifications is Monday, November 28, at 4 p.m. Qualified companies can contact RPU, and access RFQ documents through its Tequesquite Landfill Solar Project website located at www.RiversidePublicUtilities.com.