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Dayton Power opens $5m solar array in southeastern Ohio

Taking 13,000 man-hours to build through snow and rain, the Yankee solar facility is the largest in the southeast Ohio area

Ohio utility Dayton Power and Light Company (DP&L) has opened a new 1.1 megawatt solar array near its Yankee substation in Washington Township, Montgomery County, Ohio.

The facility is expected to generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of 150 homes a year.

Construction of the $5 million array began in December 2009, with 9,120 solar panels installed by a team of local companies over the seven-acre site.

The development team was led by Ameridian Specialty Services, Inc. of Cincinnati. Its partners included:

• Miller-Valentine Commercial Construction of Dayton handled the overall site construction.
• Schneider Electric of West Chester supplied the ac/dc inverters for the solar panels.
• ESI Electrical Contractors of Dayton provided electricians to wire the solar panels.
• Inovateus Solar of South Bend, Indiana handled the procurement of the solar panels from Sharp USA and developed the overall solar site design.
• Schletter, Inc. of Tucson, Arizona supplied the solar panel racks and installed the posts that support the panels.

“Many of these companies worked in the snow, rain, cold and wind to keep our project on schedule and on budget,” said Joe Jancauskas, DP&L manager of the solar construction project. “We appreciated their efforts to provide quality workmanship in less than ideal conditions.”

“In spite of all obstacles the project was completed successfully, on time and we are exceptionally proud of the end result,” said Betty Owens, president and CEO of Ameridian. “Construction took over 13,000 man hours to complete, with more than 80% of this labor provided by local Ohio contractors. Those workers installed equipment containing 73 tons of aluminum, 67 tons of steel and 164,000 feet of wire.”

Targets

Ohio’s energy legislation calls for 25% of all energy consumed by residents to be from alternative energy by 2025. Of that, 5% must be solar energy.

“Exploring solar technology is just one way DP&L is diversifying our sources for electricity generation to support our compliance with Ohio’s renewable energy requirements,” said Paul Barbas, president and CEO of DP&L.

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland attended the opening and said, “Two years ago, we fought to establish one of the nation’s most aggressive renewable energy standards to drive innovation and grow Ohio’s advanced energy economy. We are making real progress toward our goal of making Ohio a leader in the invention, production and deployment of green energy technologies.”

Starting in July, a visitor center will be open daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. to provide information about solar power and up-to-the-minute performance of the array.

Apologies from BrighterEnergy.org:

Owing to an unusual combination of technical difficulties with our web host service, the original text of this story was lost on June 24, along with our original output from June 18-24, 2010. We have attempted to restore a recovered version, which may be different from the earlier version.