Napa Valley College solar field taken offline after reported panel leaks
EIR-1252Provisional entry. A college spokesperson says the array was taken offline around early 2021 because panels were leaking and posed a fire hazard; the date, the leak, and whether any fire occurred are not confirmed, and no fire is reported. Next update: 26 September 2026.
Napa Valley College commissioned a tracking photovoltaic field of about 1.2 MW and 5,600 panels on about five acres, celebrated in April 2006. It was reported to have supplied about 40 percent of campus electricity at first, falling to about one third by 2017. In 2018 SunPower, which had acquired the original contractor PowerLight and carried out maintenance, found a wiring fault and charged the college for repairs. A Bloom Energy fuel cell was agreed in August 2020 and installed in early 2021. A college spokesperson later said the solar field was deactivated around then because panels had started leaking and posed a fire hazard, and that SunPower was no longer available. The article says the college's account of SunPower does not line up with the public record, and that the date the array went offline is not clear. The panels are reported to sit idle and overgrown. No fire is reported.
Output fell as the array aged, and maintenance costs rose. A wiring fault was repaired in 2018. The college says leakage and loss of the maintenance contractor led to deactivation; the article does not confirm that account or a precise date. Performance reports promised under a maintenance contract were not produced in response to a public records request.
- Owners should keep their own performance, warranty and maintenance records, not rely only on the contractor.
- Long-term support that sits with one company can fail if ownership or trading status changes, so contracts need a fallback.
- Stated panel life should be checked against operating data, not taken as given.
Published 2026-09-25. Written from public reporting. Descriptive, not investigative. See the data accuracy disclaimer.