Ozarks Electric Cooperative Warms Up To Solar Trend

As solar continues to entrench itself as the nation’s growth leader in renewable energy, Northwest Arkansas at last is joining the upward trend in the installation of sun farms.

A 3,960-panel solar facility by Ozarks Electric Cooperative — when and if it’s approved by state regulators — should take about five months to install, and once in place, will produce one megawatt, or enough energy to power 150 to 200 homes.

The first of its kind in the state of Arkansas, the community solar project is a direct response to the utility’s customers, who in surveys said they wanted Ozarks, which serves 71,000 meters across nine counties in Northwest Arkansas and northeast Oklahoma, to consider renewable energy, solar in particular.

The Ozarks facility will not be the only one of its kind for long, however. In Stuttgart, Entergy Arkansas has plans for an 81-megawatt facility that can power around 13,000 homes. In East Camden, a 12-megawatt farm is under construction at the Highland Industrial Park. And there are plans for other residential solar farms in other parts of the state.

Even if the Ozarks facility will not be unique for long, it still offers a unique opportunity for its customers. Those who want a direct link to solar power can subscribe on a first-come-first-served basis to the energy from the facility at U.S. 412 and Boulder Drive just east of Springdale.

And for those who want solar energy but cannot afford it — a 6 kilowatt home system can cost over $10,000, even with a federal tax break — the Ozarks investment presents an alternative to expensive rooftop solar.

Due to preexisting connectivity, there is no need for additional transmission lines, and customers will not have to absorb a price increase to offset the costs of building the facility. Plans are currently before the Arkansas Public Service Commission, where they’re expected to be approved.

Mitchell Johnson, president and CEO of Ozarks, announced the program in July. He said finding the location was not easy, due in large part to the in-depth criteria that had to be met.

“During the early stages of this project, we looked at nearly half a dozen prospective sites across Northwest Arkansas,” Johnson said. “The main factors we considered in the location included proximity to existing substations, visibility to area schools and organizations that could benefit from tours and education, price of the land, topography, and adjacent developments.”

Ozarks acquired the location, about 12 acres just east of Butterfield Coach Road, in March for $780,000. About 3.5 acres will house the solar panels. According to plans created by Guernsey, an Oklahoma City-based engineering firm, the facility will have an entrance on Boulder Drive. Though the site is large enough for future expansion, there are no such plans at this point, Johnson said. There are also no plans for Ozarks to build additional solar facilities.

Carroll Electric Cooperative Corp. does not have immediate plans for a solar facility, but it is in the process of building a solar demonstration lab for its members. Southwestern Electric Power Company, or SWEPCO, has multiple power-purchase agreements for 469 megawatts of wind energy out of Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.

The announcement by Ozarks comes as solar energy makes its move to the top of the renewable energy pyramid. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, there were 500 megawatts of solar energy nationwide in 2004. By the end of 2014, there were 20,000 megawatts, enough to power 4 million homes.

Perhaps the biggest advocate for solar technology is the department of energy and its SunShot initiative, which looks to make solar power cost-competitive with traditional energy sources before the end of the decade. Solar, which employs around 174,000 people nationwide and pumps around $18 billion into the economy each year, has taken huge strides in the last few years.

“Solar is one of the fastest growing industries in the U.S. and will continue to grow in 2015 as more residential and commercial solar installations come online,” said Minh Le, SunShot’s director. “Last year, solar energy provided 32 percent of all new electric generating capacity in the U.S. and in the first quarter of 2015, solar was the largest source of new electric generating capacity in the U.S., exceeding natural gas.”

Solar Today

Manpower will be needed during the Ozarks installation — 10 weeks for ground prep and 10 to 12 weeks for assembly — but once the solar field is in place, it will require minimal operation and maintenance, Johnson said.

The contractor is Today’s Power Inc., a subsidiary of Arkansas Electric Cooperatives Inc. Today’s Power, formed late last year, has already built a 300-kilowatt solar facility for meters in Little Rock. Today’s Power also has plans to build additional solar facilities in Arkansas, but those locations have yet to be disclosed.

Funding for the Ozarks facility was aided through the 30-percent Federal Investment Tax Credit, or ITC, and accelerated depreciation. Since the ITC rate of 30 percent slides to 10 percent after Dec. 31, 2016, now is the time to build the Washington County facility, said Michael Henderson, president of Today’s Power, and executive vice president and CFO of both the Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corp., and the Arkansas Electric Cooperatives Inc.

“We’re trying to get the systems in place while the incentives are still in place,” he said.

In the past, price was solar’s big problem. But that problem has eased, Le explained.

“Cost is a huge factor in the growth of solar,” he said. “Since the beginning of 2010, the average cost of solar PV panels has dropped more than 60 percent and the cost of a solar electric system has dropped by about 50 percent. … Solar is now affordable for more American families and companies.”

The Ozarks facility will utilize the high-density, high-yield REFLECT system by Minnesota-based manufacturer tenKsolar. The proprietary system uses cell independence which produces energy by total light received, not uniformity of light. Static reflectors increase the amount of light each module receives and increases production by 20 percent, according to a product description posted on tenKsolar’s website.

As the Ozarks facility was in the works for about three years, Johnson and his colleagues had a good idea of what the industry had to offer. The tenKsolar product did the trick.

“It’s one of the most efficient pieces of technology that we looked at,” Johnson said.

Ozarks prides itself on its affordability, customer satisfaction, reliability and the fact the company has logged nearly two million man hours, much of it out in dangerous conditions on utility poles, without an accident.

And next year, customers can drive past the installation on U.S. 412 and see the solar panels glinting in the sun.

“This was a perfect location,” Johnson said. “We looked throughout Northwest Arkansas and we wanted to be visible.”