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Fountain Valley Offices Plug Into Solar Power

By Hector Becerra
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Arden Realty Inc., which owns 142 office buildings, unveiled an acre of solar panels on the roofs of its two-building Fountain Valley City Centre complex Wednesday as part of its effort to lower energy costs and secure a reliable source of power.

Arden, based in Los Angeles, has been a big proponent of using alternative sources of power. It is testing technologies like microturbines, solar panels and combustion engines that run on clean-burning fuels such as natural gas.

In Fountain Valley, the photovoltaic power system, believed to be the largest private commercial solar-energy system in the Western Hemisphere, will supply 15% to 20% of the complex’s normal electricity consumption, company officials said.

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The solar-energy system will be used during times of low power reserves or high prices, the company said.

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Hector Becerra

Hector Becerra is managing editor of the Los Angeles Times. A native Angeleno who grew up in Boyle Heights, Becerra’s first foray into journalism was as the editor of the University Times at Cal State Los Angeles. He started his career at the Los Angeles Times in 1999 and was a general assignment reporter until 2014, covering everything from wildfires to crime to Latino cultural trends. He has been among the first to a murder scene as part of a ride-along in South L.A. and has tried his hand as a field worker, picking strawberries in Santa Maria. Becerra was part of the team of reporters that won the Pulitzer Prize’s Public Service award for its coverage of the city of Bell corruption scandal. He was city editor for the California section until 2022, when he was promoted to deputy managing editor. He was named managing editor in 2024.

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