James Bruggers

Who ever said there's no sunshine in Kentucky?

With solar panels popping up on people's houses across the commonwealth, Kentucky is now going to get its first utility-scale and largest solar array, a 10-megawatt facility to be constructed with tens of thousands of solar panels and operated by Kentucky Utilities and Louisville Gas & Electric.

The facility is slated for the grounds of the E.W. Brown Generating Station in Mercer County. It should produce enough electricity to power 8,000 homes, making it a modest addition to Kentucky's energy mix.

The Kentucky Public Service Commission approved the facility on Friday, after endorsing an agreement reached by the two utilities and two other parties to the case: the Sierra Club, and Kentucky Industrial Utility Customers Inc. The PSC found the agreement to be consistent with its own analysis of the case.

"This is a good example of how LG&E and KU, the Sierra Club and our industrial partners worked together for a mutually beneficial solution for Kentucky," said LG&E and KU Chief Operating Officer Paul Thompson in a written statement.

"While Kentucky is not blessed with an abundance of wind and solar energy, the approval gives us the opportunity to learn more about solar technology," said Thompson. "By utilizing our existing property and taking advantage of tax incentives, we can offer our customers another source of generation, similar to our existing hydro plants."

Earthjustice represented Sierra Club in the proceeding before the PSC to support the project, and issued the following statement:

The approval of this solar project is a significant step in showing that the Commonwealth's ongoing prosperity can be linked to clean, renewable energy. The Commission's decision acknowledges the benefit of offering a diversity of energy choices and using renewable energy to reduce the financial risk to ratepayers and their hard-earned money. Over the span of just one year the price of solar panels declined by almost 50 percent, which led the utilities to take a second look at solar and propose this project. We hope utilities like LG&E and KU will propose more clean energy projects that can create jobs and protect the health of the families and communities of the commonwealth.

They found it significant that the commission included this language:

...it is appropriate for Joint Applicants (LG&E and KU) to diversify their generation portfolio in light of a likely future carbon-constrained world.

Kentucky is a coal state and has been slow to embrace the reality of climate change. This is a state where the Kentucky General Assembly's Democratic Party point person on the environment recently received the Coal Miner of the Year Award from the Kentucky Coal Association, for getting a bill passed that took aim at federal carbon dioxide rules. That would be Rep. Jim Gooch, D-Providence.

The 10-megawatt solar facility is expected to go online in 2016 and cost $36 million and will be built on 153-acres just south of the Brown plant, where coal and natural gas are burned.

PSC officials said the project will have a "relatively minor" impact on rates; its relatively higher initial investment will be partly offset by tax credits and other factors.

The PSC agreed with KU and LG&E that adding solar powered capacity now will help prepare for any future requirements to reduce CO2 emissions produced by burning fossil fuels and "has the ability to reduce potential future CO2 compliance costs."

Finally, for those who have stuck with me all the way to the end, there is a reward -- a link to a super-cool Energy Department map that shows solar potential across the United States, with actual numbers as you roll your cursor from Maine to California.

The American Southwest has the most potential, which should come as no surprise. There, according to Scientific American, the world's largest solar array is cranking out 290 MW of sunshine power, called Agua Caliente.

From SA:

The energy contained in just one hour of sunlight could power the world for a year, if only it could be harnessed. Traditional solar panels made from silicon—the gold standard of semiconducting material—are expensive, however, particularly in comparison with cheap but dirty coal and natural gas. Agua Caliente, which is operated and maintained for NRG by Tempe, Ariz.–based First Solar, uses newer,thin-film panels that that absorb the same amount of sunlight with a fraction of the material, boosting the array's efficiency.