RIBBON CUT ON SOLAR FARM – On Thursday, MC Power Companies cut the ribbon on the solar farm it constructed, owns and operates on 20 acres it purchased from the City of El Dorado Springs in the east Industrial Park off Hwy. 54 for $5,000 per acre. This is the 10th solar farm like it in the state of Missouri with an 11th one planned, each at a cost of $6 or $7 million. They all connect to the grid of one of the 35 Missouri Joint Municipal Electric Utility Commission (MJMEUC) cities of which El Dorado Springs is one. At the ribbon cutting, Loren Williamson, senior vice president of project development, told the crowd that there are 10,188 solar panels approx. 3 ft. x 7 ft. that are rated at 325 watts each. They are weather resistant withstanding winds up to 70 mph. They tolerate hail up to golf ball size. MC Power has a 25-year power purchase agreement with MJMEUC but expects the solar farm to last 40 to 50 years. The solar farm produces 3.311 megawatts DC which converts to 2.5 megawatts AC.

Susan Hughes, legal assistant at MC Power, told the Sun that when the panels are covered with snow and ice, with a 25-degree tilt facing south, “Typically it melts off just from the sun’s rays. They are slick, so snow slides right off. There would be some blockage right off the bat but once the sun hits it, the snow will slide off.” She said, “We also have an Also Energy Monitoring System. If there are any issues with the solar farm, we know immediately if something goes down. So there is no delay in us getting out there and doing a repair. We monitor the production daily. If there are any issues, that Also Energy Monitoring System will notify us.”

She said, “It was a perfect piece of property because if we have rolling hills and that sort of thing we have to end up buying more land because we have to make the rows farther apart due to shading. When you have a flat piece of property, it just works out better.”

Facebook Comments