Ameresco has announced that the Department of Veterans Affairs has awarded the company a renewable energy asset project with costs valued at over $6.6 million to design and build a solar photovoltaic system for the Veterans Administration Medical Center (VAMC) in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The money saved from the on-site generation of power would free up scarce operations and maintenance dollars that can be used for patient care of veterans.

"We are pleased to have been selected by the Department of Veterans Affairs for this important project," said Keith Derrington, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Federal Operations at Ameresco.

"We look forward to getting the project underway. This project will help create and maintain green jobs in Utah."

The project scope includes a mixture of roof top and ground mounted arrays of solar photovoltaic panels. The roof top systems will be installed on seven campus facilities with systems ranging from 35 to 100 KW. The ground mounted system is envisioned to be approximately 550 KW once the design is completed and approved.

The design phase is set to begin immediately with construction expected to begin in early 2011. Between the engineering and construction phases the project will take an estimated 10 months to complete.

Completion of the solar project at the Salt Lake City VAMC will contribute to the Veterans Administration's effort to comply with the mandate of the Energy Policy Act (EPAct) of 2005 and Executive Order (EO) 13423 directing Federal agencies to increase their use of renewable energy.

EPAct requires that at least 5% of the agency's electricity needs come from renewable sources by 2012. EO 13423 mandates that at least half the renewable energy come from new sources. The Salt Lake City VAMC project supports both of those mandates