East-side solar farm with nearly 27,000 panels to debut in fall

Mickey Shuey | The Palladium-Item

RICHMOND, Ind. – Progress on a solar farm containing nearly 27,000 solar panels is well underway, with plans for the energy produced there to contribute directly to the local electrical grid once the project is complete.

The Indiana Municipal Power Agency site, situated between Interstate 70 and the Indiana-Ohio state line, is part of an ongoing initiative by a group overseeing Richmond Power & Light, to expand solar energy and its practical applications throughout the state. The farm sits on about 51 acres of land formerly belonging to New Creations, which shuttered in mid-2016.

The project has been in development for nearly a year and recently saw the installation of the last of the 26,712 solar panels planned for the site. What remains is the electrical work, which will connect the panels to a series of converters, circuit breakers and transformers, and ultimately to the RP&L system.

Brandt Construction superintendent Pat Yeoman, who's been involved in more than a dozen solar projects for IMPA over the past several years, said once all the panels are hooked into the system, the site will be ready for operation.

The panels as a whole can theoretically produce about 9.7 megawatts of energy per day, though Yeoman said that number will likely be closer to about 7 to 8 megawatts due to energy lost in the conversion process.

"What's really exciting about this is all this energy will stay right here in Richmond," he said. "It's going to help alleviate the local electrical system's load a bit."

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Yeoman gave the Pal Item an extensive tour of the site, which at its easternmost point sits about 50 feet from Interstate 70 and at its westernmost tiptoes near the state border, explaining much of the electrical work — including the installation of underground wiring systems — remains to be done on the property before the projected mid-November completion date.

"This is where the fun begins," he said. "It's time consuming work, but we're proud of what we're doing here. It's going to have a good impact on the area."

He said the ability to utilize solar panels lessens the area's reliance on other forms of energy such as coal and nuclear power.

The project at the former New Creations site isn't IMPA's first project in the Richmond area; one of its first solar farms was built in a field near the RP&L service building along U.S. 27 South; the site contains about 4,000 solar panels, though the technology has come a long way since then, Yeoman said.

"It's like night and day," he said. "These panels are the latest and greatest version of those, but there's quite a bit more efficiency with these."

The new panels produce about 365 watts per day, compared to about 305 watts produced by the earlier models used at other site.

While the panels are presently in varying positions, in relation to the sun, they will be able to track the star’s movements over the course of a day, Yeoman said. He said that is also one of the biggest advances made in the last several years since the other Richmond site was established.

He said the panels will “wake up” around 7 a.m., and will follow the sun along its path until it sets each day; the panels are expected to be synchronized so they are all in the proper position at any given time. At night, the panels will enter what yepman described as a sleep mode.

”This is advanced technology, and it’s going to help make the (farm) more efficient,” he said. “Being able to have all the panels in proper position is going to be incredibly beneficial.”

Jack Alvey, chief operating officer for IMPA, said the east-side site is ahead of schedule because crews experienced nice weather installing the panels. He said the timeline for the electrical work is fairly concrete, but could be affected some if there is a spate of bad weather.

"We're making very good progress on the site," Alvey said. "If everything continues (as is), we might be able to finish in October now; we can't make any promises, but that's where we'd be if we continue at this pace."

The energy captured by the panels in Richmond would be able to power more than 1,000 homes for a full year, though the electricity will be distributed system-wide, and will only be output during the day, when the panels are operational.

The panels, which sit on racks about 12 to 16 panels wide, are designed to synchronically move in an east-to-west manner over the course of the day, Yeoman said.

Alvey confirmed all electricity produced at the site will be consumed in Richmond, though it will not be broken out from the rest of the system on paper.

"On paper, it will show as part of IMPA's overall power supply, but physically, because it's only a small part of what Richmond uses, it'll all go right into the local system and be consumed there," he said.

Alvey said IMPA, which provides power for 60 cities and towns in Indiana and one town in Ohio, is already working on at least two other projects in other parts of the state, with plans to finish those and start another by the year's end. IMPA already has about a dozen solar projects completed throughout the state.

Alvey said as its members' electrical needs grow, the agency is seeking to add anywhere from 10 to 15 megawatts of solar power each year, with the idea that larger cities would receive larger solar farms until it reaches at least 100 megawatts of solar power overall.

Cities who use the electricity from solar panels will still be charged for its use, expenses then handed down to customers in the form of electricity usage rates, but it won't bring any additional costs for RP&L customers, Alvey has previously said.

IMPA is not alone in its efforts to utilize solar energy in the Richmond area; at least one area church, the Richmond Friends Quakers group, recently installed solar panels on its roof to lessen its electricity costs.

A handful of private citizens have also used solar panels at their home, and others recently spoke during a lengthy public meeting on the impact that changing net-metering rules for the city could have on an individual's ability to be more energy independent.

A public hearing was held for an Richmond Common Council ordinance change June 4, bringing dozens of solar energy supporters to the meeting in an effort to quash the proposed rule change.

Current rules adopted in November 2010, allow customers who generate excess power to get a one-to-one credit for each kilowatt hour produced that exceeds what they need for their own homes; as it stands, the ordinance sets a cap on the number of kilowatt hours that can be produced through the program, limiting the number of homes who can participate to about 16 to 20 households.

The proposed change would put RP&L's rules in line with those by IMPA, meaning customers would be reimbursed in cash at a wholesale price, plus 25 percent, rather than the existing retail rate, which is higher.

"The argument is if people fall off of the grid by doing their own solar, the cost to maintain the grid kind of shifts from the haves to the have-nots in terms of solar," RP&L General Manager Randy Baker said during the meeting.

The proposal is on the agenda for Monday's meeting, at 7 p.m. in council chambers, though it is not likely a public comment period will take place before the item is moved forward.

IMPA bought the land being used for its current solar panel project from Heritage Land Company, a subsidiary of Indianapolis-based Heritage Group, which also owns Milestone Contractors called The Heritage Group. The conglomerate bought the land from New Creations in January 2017.

Initially, the land purchase was for about 44 acres, but that was ultimately expanded to about 53, including the land currently occupied by the arrays of solar panels.

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IMPA went before the Richmond Board of Zoning Appeals in August 2017 to discuss its plans for the site, as the space had been zoned for institutional use because of New Creations; the zoning allowed for specific uses for renewable energy production, which allowed the agency to proceed with the project.

"I think the city was very supportive of this location," he said. "We don't have any other sites in Richmond that are in active development, but we are looking for additional sites. There could be an additional (farm) in Richmond in the future, if an adequate, available site were to become available."

He said such a move would be made based on parameters of both design and economics, but the focus continues to be on helping all of the collective's members attain a certain percentage of solar energy reliability.

Alvey said tariffs placed on solar panels by President Donald Trump's administration in January did have an impact on the project's cost, but noted it was minimal in nature.

He said recent years have brought steady declines in prices for the panels, but they rose this year to around the same price they were in 2016.

"It did raise the cost a little bit ... probably in the five to eight percent range," he said. "The effect on the overall cost was less than 10 percent, though; it still was within what our economical analysis said was okay to proceed."

He said he has no apprehension about proceeding with future projects, either due to tariffs or the slow rise of other forms of energy, such as wind power; he said the company remains committed to solar energy as a means of electricity production.

"We expect we'll be OK going forward," he said.

He said he is hopeful that as more projects come along for IMPA, it will present additional opportunities for the group to explore growth in the area. In the meantime, however, he said he is focused on bringing the current project online.

"We are excited to have this project in Richmond," he said. "Really, we are looking forward to getting this electricity into the system for our Richmond customers."

Jason Truitt contributed to this story.

Mickey Shuey is the business reporter at the Palladium-Item. Contact him at (765) 973-4472 or mshuey@gannett.com. You can also follow him on Twitter: @MickeyShuey, or on Facebook: www.facebook.com/MickeyShuey.