A solar array, or solar farm, developing west of Ellettsville on the corner of State Road 46 and Flatwoods Road is projected to be completed in October. The project is part of a Hoosier Energy initiative to build 10 large-scale solar arrays in southern Indiana and southeastern Illinois. This one will provide energy for SCI REMC.
The solar array is one of three scheduled for completion this year and the fourth overall.
“Our solar array will have fewer panels than the previous one installed because the technology has advanced even in the short time between the last array and ours,” said Maura Giles, SCI REMC manager of cooperative relations. “Each panel is more effective.”
The solar array is expected to generate approximately 1 megawatt of power from 4,000 solar panels, totaling 2 million kilowatt-hours of energy per year, which is enough power for about 150 homes.
According to Giles, the Ellettsville site was selected “for its high visibility to co-op consumers and for its proximity to a nearby substation where electricity from the array can easily be distributed onto the power grid.”
Other driving factors for site selection were “economics, visibility, diversity and location.”
Each solar farm is estimated to cost Hoosier Energy, an 18-member energy cooperative, $2.7 million.
The initiative is part of Hoosier Energy’s all-of-the-above approach to production, which seeks to diversify the cooperative’s energy portfolio.
“The solar array is contributing to Hoosier Energy’s target of supplying 10% of member energy requirements from renewables by 2025,” Giles said.
Other sources of energy harvested by the organization include landfill and coalbed methane gas, wind and hydro.
Hoosier Energy’s board of directors approved the plan to build 10 solar arrays in July 2014. To date, three have been built and are operating in Indiana.
- Bloomfield in Greene County, serving parts of Clay, Daviess, Greene, Knox, Lawrence, Martin, Owen, Putnam, Sullivan and Vigo counties.
- Georgetown in Harrison County, serving parts of Harrison, Clark, Crawford, Floyd and Washington counties.
- New Castle in Henry County, serving parts of Henry, Bartholomew, Dearborn, Decatur, Delaware, Fayette, Hancock, Johnson, Madison, Randolph, Rush, Shelby, Union and Wayne counties.
Together, they contribute power to 75,770 of Hoosier Energy’s 300,000 customers. The solar array in Ellettsville will add another 33,000 in Morgan, Monroe, Owen, Brown and parts of Putnam, Clay and Johnson counties.
Originally published in Ellettsville Journal, 2016. Republished here for archival and portfolio purposes.