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Last updated on Thursday, March 31, 2016
(WASHINGTON) - The Washington City Council cleared the last paper hurdle that will allow the Indiana Municipal Power Agency to complete construction on a new 4-megawatt solar field on the city’s west side.
The Washington Times-Herald reports the city declared the 23-acre site as an economic development area. The move cleared the way for the city to approve a 10-year tax abatement on the project.
Dan Worl, IMPA Sustainable Energy Manager says IMPA is non-profit and this helps keep the cost of the solar project in line.
The solar park in Washington will be the largest IMPA has constructed. IMPA paid the city $94,000 for the land and the additional generation capacity should help rate payers in the city.
The plan is to begin setting posts around April 11. After that, the panels will go into place and the project will take about 10 weeks to complete.
The solar field is the second in the area. Just last year REMC and WIN Energy opened a solar project along I-69 just inside Greene County. Crane has also announced plans to open a much larger solar operation as part of the Navy's move to utilize more renewable energy resources.
Since IMPA is the provider for Washington Municipal Utilities, all of the power generated by the solar field will be used locally.
At peak generation, the solar operation will provide enough power to operate 3,000 homes.
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