U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) joined the Santa Clarita City Council on Monday for the dedication of a roof that generates power for the city’s bus maintenance facility.

“The City of Santa Clarita is dedicated to serving as a leader in implementing green technologies to promote the preservation of our environment,” Mayor Marsha McLean said in a statement.  “The Transit Maintenance Facility is just one example of how the city of Santa Clarita is committed to greener development and responsible public policy.”

The Transit Maintenance Facility is a state-of-the-art complex on Constellation Road in Valencia that won the highest level of certification from the U.S. Green Building Council for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).

The expansion of three new solar canopies and additional solar panels will generate 1 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually – about 97 percent of the power needed for the facility. It will enable the city to cut its electricity bills by $137,080 per year.

The project was paid for in part by $4.62 million in federal funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s Transit Investment in Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reduction (TIGGER) Program.

The city also applied for reimbursement from Southern California Edison’s Solar Incentive Program, which encourages cities to install solar equipment that generates some of the electricity needed to power facilities.  Edison agreed to reimburse the city $930,000 over the next five years.

Built in 2006, the facility has more than 3,200 photovoltaic modules installed on top of the bus wash building and bus ports.