ForeFront Power, a leading developer and asset manager of commercial and industrial-scale renewable energy solutions, today announced that it has achieved commercial operation of its first Erthos solar energy system at the City of Fresno’s Northeast Surface Water Treatment Plant.
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ErthBot cleans the solar modules at the City of Fresno’s Northeast Surface Water Treatment Plant.
Erthos distills the complexity of solar energy systems into a modular, repeatable design. Unlike traditional ground-mounted solar energy systems supported by structural steel, Erthos’ Earth Mount Solar system places modules directly on the earth, which allows solar project developers to eliminate all the costs required to procure and install structural steel. Leveraging Erthos technology, ForeFront Power was able to reduce its total cost to develop its solar energy system and pass those savings to the City of Fresno in the form of lower electricity rates.
ForeFront Power approached Erthos in 2023 when a combination of inflation and supply shocks caused the price of labor and materials to spike. The ForeFront Power team realized that the cost of a traditional ground-mounted system at this site would be significantly higher. This in turn would increase the cost of the electricity that ForeFront Power would sell back to the City of Fresno through a Power Purchase Agreement. Under the terms of the Agreement, ForeFront Power owns the system and charges the City a fixed, lower rate for electricity than the utility for 20 years.
“After conducting our due diligence and vetting Erthos technology, we discovered that the Northeast Surface Water Treatment Plant was an optimal site for an Erthos application,” said Erinne Davis, senior project manager at ForeFront Power. “Erthos helped us avoid significant, expensive civil upgrades, as well as the cost of steel for racking and the labor to install that racking. Realizing these savings on the installation is what enabled the project at this site to move forward.”
The Erthos Earth Mount Solar system is part of a sprawling solar energy and smart battery storage portfolio that ForeFront Power developed for the City of Fresno’s Department of Public Utilities (DPU) at three sites: the Northeast Surface Water Treatment Facility, the Southeast Surface Water Treatment Facility, and the Fresno-Clovis Regional Wastewater Reclamation Facility. At a combined 27 MW-DC in size, the DPU projects are expected to save over $122 million in ratepayer dollars by 2045.
Since the system entered commercial operation in late March 2026, the system has consistently outperformed expectations, operating at an average of 101% of expected energy production and has already delivered 862 MWh of energy to the City. ForeFront Power and Erthos continue to work closely together to optimize system performance. Both organizations are encouraged by the project’s early results and outlook for continued strong performance in the years ahead.
How Erthos Enables a Lower Cost Per Watt for Solar Electricity
In addition to avoiding material and labor costs from structural steel, ForeFront Power was able to achieve a higher generating capacity per acre thanks to the unique architecture of Erthos systems. With no row spacing, Erthos offers the highest energy density of any solar architecture in the industry. Another unique feature of Erthos Earth Mount Solar system is that, although the solar modules are mounted flat on the earth, they can follow contours up to 15% slope, meaning they were adaptable to the natural topography of the Fresno site.
ForeFront Power and Erthos have entered into an Energy Services Agreement in which Erthos will maintain the solar energy system, including regular cleanings of the solar array by their proprietary ErthBot PV array cleaner, a dry nylon brush autonomous cleaning robot. Each ErthBot is designed to clean over 3.5 MW-DC of solar PV array, making it the most cost-effective method for cleaning large-scale PV arrays in the industry.
Custom-designed for use on an Earth Mount Solar array, the ErthBot cleaner is deployed nightly as needed and returns to its charging dock after each use, ready to be deployed again the following evening. Erthos handles the operations and maintenance of the ErthBot as part of its Energy Services Agreement with ForeFront Power.
“The Fresno project demonstrates how Erthos Earth Mount Solar can unlock projects that might otherwise be constrained by conventional construction costs,” said Jim Tyler, CEO of Erthos. “Working with ForeFront Power, we delivered a high-density solar system designed for strong long-term performance, efficient maintenance, and lower-cost energy for the City of Fresno.”
About ForeFront Power
ForeFront Power is a leading provider of energy solutions and advisory services. This includes commercial and industrial-scale (C&I) solar energy and battery storage projects in the U.S. and Mexico, as well as fleet electrification and asset management services. With over 15 years of experience, the ForeFront Power team has developed more than 1,900 behind-the-meter and community solar projects, totaling more than 1.6 gigawatt-DC of renewable electricity. In addition to project development and asset management, ForeFront Power provides strategic advisory services that help organizations navigate complex energy decisions—from sustainability and procurement planning to renewable project implementation. The company serves a wide array of business, government, education, healthcare, and community solar customers from its San Francisco headquarters and through teams based in New York, Mexico City, and across the U.S. For additional information, please visit www.forefrontpower.com.
About Erthos
Founded in 2019 and located in Tempe, Arizona, Erthos offers a full suite of products and services aimed at helping developers dramatically reduce the levelized cost of energy (“LCOE”) on utility-scale solar power plants. Its executives and management hail from companies including Tesla, Intel, General Electric, First Solar, SunPower, Depcom Power, Sterling & Wilson, SMA, Solar Frontier, and Plug Power. The team has extensive experience in global markets, including the US, Latin America, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, Asia, and the Pacific. Find out more about Erthos at www.erthos.com.
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