ANDERSON — Sometime next summer a portion of the electricity that powers air conditioning, televisions and appliances in Anderson will be derived via solar.
The Anderson City Council on Thursday approved a tax abatement for the construction of a solar electric generating facility by the Indiana Municipal Power Agency.
The property is owned by the Anderson Municipal Airport, which is expected to lease the property to IMPA on the northeast corner of Rangeline Road and Ind. 32.
The abatement is for 10 years and will start at 100 percent and then be reduced by 10 percent a year.
Jack Avery with IMPA said the agency will pay $60,000 in lieu of taxes to local governmental entities once the abatement ends.
He said the proposed Anderson solar park at 5 megawatts will provide electrical energy for 500 to 750 homes and will be the largest IMPA will operate.
“It diversifies the power supply. Costs have come down for solar so this makes sense,” Avery said. “It will be a stable price resource because there are no fuel costs. Energy from the sun is free.”
He said the solar park will assist Anderson with economic development opportunities and provide an educational tool for local school systems.
Once in operation, the electricity generated by the solar park will be distributed directly into the electrical grid for Anderson.
Avery said the cost of the project is $9.5 million and will take four to five months to construct.
The solar park will include 19,000 solar panels covering 35 of the 53 total acres.
Avery said the solar park is expected to have a usable lifespan of 35 to 40 years.
IMPA intends to install solar photovoltaic panels, inverters, transformers, rack mounts, wiring circuit breakers, relays and related equipment, which will be connected directly to the Anderson Municipal Light & Power distribution system.
Tony Pochard, superintendent of Anderson Light & Power, said the site can’t be used for other development because it’s located in the flight path to the Anderson Municipal Airport.
“This has a number of advantages for Anderson and IMPA,” Pochard said. “It will generate electricity at or below the current wholesale rates for power.”
The city of Anderson averages the use of 120 to 130 megawatts of electricity on a daily basis and the record was 195 megawatts.
This is the second IMPA generating facility in Anderson; it has a peaking power plant on Park Road that produces electricity through the use of natural gas.
IMPA currently has solar generating facilities in Frankton, Crawfordsville, Rensselear and Peru that can generate 9,520 kilowatts of electricity.
A solar park began generating electricity in Pendleton in October at a two megawatt facility.