For decades southwestern Indiana has been the hub for energy production in the state. Abundant coal fields have supplied power plants since the 1930's from Cayuga to Evansville. The area has also become the home to a massive coal gasification plant in Edwardsport and some natural gas electric generating stations at Wheatland and Worthington.
Now a different kind of energy is coming online. Solar powered electricity is now being generated from a solar farm operated by Hoosier Energy just off of I-69 near the Greene-Daviess County line. The one megawatt operation cost $2.75 million and will be supplying power to both Utilities District of Western Indiana and Daviess-Martin County REMC.
"The board decided to cautiously move into renewable energy and solar," said General Manager for Daviess-Martin County REMC Dave Sutter. "This is the second of 10 renewable energy projects to be constructed."
The new array is expected to produce enough electricity each year to run 140 average homes. "The technology for solar energy is still not quite there," said Sutter. "This is our attempt to deal with clean air and the impacts of fossil fuels on climate change."
Sutter says that even though solar does not require the purchase of an ongoing source of energy like coal it is still an expensive option. "It costs 2-3 cents to produce a kilowatt hour using fossil fuels," explained Sutter. "That same kilowatt hours takes 7 cents to produce using solar. Time will tell whether the cost curve changes and that could change depending on what happens through regulations. This will give us the real data we need on the cost and benefit of solar and to see if the technology can become more usable."
One of the great weaknesses of solar energy is that once the sun goes down the power goes out. The new solar array in Greene County though is very close to the recently opened Battery Innovation Center at Westgate. "I don't know of any arrangement that we have with the BIC, but just the synergy that could develop with those two facilities being so close together is interesting," said Sutter. "Whether is comes out of Westgate or Tesla out in California we need to come up with storage devices that will match the need and usage of solar supplies."
While REMC is opening its solar farm in Greene County, Washington is in the process of becoming part of the solar expansion. The city has agreed to sell a 21-acre site on the west side to the Indiana Municipal Power Agency (the power supplier for Washington Municipal Utilities) so that the cooperative can construct a new solar operation.
"We have completed our part of the deal," said Washington Mayor Joe Wellman. "It is now up to the people in Indianapolis to finalize it."
While the normal IMPA solar farm covers around 10 acres and produces one megawatt, the availability of land has led the power company to consider a much larger operation. "They are talking about a 2 or 3 megawatt operation," said Wellman. "The cost could run in the $4-6 million range."
The mayor says the growth of solar, even in coal country, is about clean air regulations. "It's all about generation diversification," said Wellman. "There are growing regulations on coal that will make power generation using it more expensive in the future. We know that renewable sources are not able to supply all of our needs, but this will supply some of our power without spewing anything into the air."
IMPA is expected to complete its designs on the Washington property this winter and begin construction in the spring.
Perhaps the most aggressive trip into solar energy in southern Indiana may come from the Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center. There the U.S. Navy is reviewing plans for the possible construction of solar arrays for generating electricity on several sites that will cover 228 acres and generate 45 megawatts of electricity. In a pamphlet distributed by Crane, officials say the purpose is to increase Navy installation energy security, strategic flexibility and resource availability through the development of renewable-energy generating assets at NSA Crane.
The proposal is also part of the response at the base to a directive from the Navy to become more involved in renewable energy. The Secretary of the Navy has set renewable energy goals that call for a one gigawatt initiate by 2020 throughout the Navy. The directive is for the Navy's shore-base facilities to either produce or procure 50 percent of its electricity from alternative energy sources. The Navy is currently reviewing public comments on the environmental assessment on the project.
Local officials say they believe the new solar operations will allow them to get first hand knowledge and information on how solar plants operate, what the true costs will be and ways they can improve the technology in the future. "We know this is the trend, the push is on for solar energy even though the technology is not quite there," said Sutter. "This will provide us with first hand data that isn't whitewashed or diluted with subsidies and other factors that will tell us if this can be successful. I feel like this will give us the insight on whether we can be bigger and better with solar or whether we should consider something totally different."