City Hall Powered with Solar Panels

        By the end of this year, Rancho Mirage's City Hall and the city's vehicle maintenance yard should be getting most of their power from brand-new rooftop and carport solar panels. The City Council gave the go-ahead Monday to a $1.2 million contract with Palm Springs-based Nobell Energy Solutions to add the panels to the city facilities, with construction expected to begin in October and finish in mid-December.
        The council also approved spending $23,000 to put a new roof over the maintenance yard's traffic signal warehouse, which will be able to support the panels. The new panels, which will be leased by the city from Nobell for up to 20 years with an option to buy them out at 10 years, are projected to generate 60% of the electricity needed by City Hall and 95% for the maintenance yard, which is in Thousand Palms.