Vectren Opens Solar Farms
(photo courtesy of Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke’s Office)
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe sun is now powering a part of southwestern Indiana after Evansville-based Vectren Corp. (NYSE: VVC) opened two solar farms in Vanderburgh County. Vectren officials joined representatives from the city of Evansville Tuesday to open the two, 2-megawatt solar arrays.
One array is near Oak Hill Cemetery on Morgan Avenue where Vectren will lease the city’s land, and the other project is on Highway 41 near North High School. The Highway 41 array also includes battery storage that will be able to put out 1 megawatt per hour over a four-hour timeframe.
Vectren Chairman, President and CEO Carl Chapman says the arrays are the first in their electric generation portfolio. "These projects – combined with existing wind energy agreements and our plan to build a 50-MW universal solar farm in Spencer County – help demonstrate our desire to create a more balanced energy mix in how we generate electricity.”
The solar farms are each made of about 8,000 solar panels located on 15 acres, and the 4 megawatts of combined power is expected to supply enough energy to power over 800 homes each year. Vectren says the new solar arrays, combined with the new 50-MW facility expected to open in fall 2020, will power over 12,000 homes per year. The solar projects are included in the company’s Smart Energy Future strategy, that also involves natural gas, grid modernization, and smart energy management tools for customers. Click here to learn more.