Fresno puts Erthos’ steel-free solar design into commercial operation

At Fresno’s Northeast Surface Water Treatment Plant, rows of solar modules are doing something unusual: they are resting directly on the earth, without the structural steel used by traditional ground-mounted systems. The project, developed by ForeFront Power with Erthos, entered commercial operation in late March 2026 and has already delivered 862 MWh of electricity to the City of Fresno.

The idea arrived when the economics became difficult. ForeFront Power approached Erthos in 2023, after inflation and supply shocks drove up labor and material prices. The developer judged that a conventional system would make power too expensive to sell to Fresno under its 20-year Power Purchase Agreement, so it used Erthos’ Earth Mount Solar design to remove the cost of steel racking and the labor required to install it.

The system is built around a simpler layout. Without row spacing, Erthos says its architecture can fit more generating capacity on each acre. The modules lie flat on the ground but can follow natural contours with slopes of up to 15%, helping the array adapt to the Fresno site instead of requiring extensive civil upgrades. ForeFront Power says the project has operated at an average of 101% of expected energy production.

Maintenance follows the same logic. Erthos’ ErthBot is an autonomous cleaner with a dry nylon brush, designed to clean more than 3.5 MW-DC of solar array. It works at night when needed, then returns to a charging dock. Erthos maintains the system under an Energy Services Agreement with ForeFront Power.

So what changes in practice? For Fresno, the lower installation cost helped unlock a solar project at a water-treatment site and supports a fixed electricity rate below the utility’s rate for 20 years. The array is part of a three-site solar and smart-battery portfolio totaling 27 MW-DC, expected to save ratepayers over $122 million by 2045. Those savings and performance figures come from the project partners, while the system’s early operating record remains limited to its first months in service.