Sky Park Community Solar Garden

A former landfill is turning into the largest solar panel array in Eau Claire. Local businesses, organizations, and residents will have the choice to get their energy from the Sky Park Community Solar Garden. Xcel Energy, The City of Eau Claire, Pristine Sun, and RAQ have joined forces to make this possible, and they invited interested citizens to come participate in the construction process.

It was a light-hearted affair, with lots of joking and laughter. The installation of the first solar panel was the climax of the morning, met with cheers and pictures. The project is scheduled to be producing energy by late September.

A former landfill is being transformed into the largest array of solar panels in Eau Claire.

“This is land that we couldn’t do anything with as a city, we’re able to turn that into productivity with clean energy,” says Ned Noel, Associate Planner, City of Eau Claire.
Troy Helming, CEO of Pristine Sun says, “We’re really excited. This is the first big does dianabol really increase testosterone levels solar project for us in the state of Wisconsin.”

“To date this would be the largest solar array in the city of Eau Claire, at roughly one megawatt of power,” states Mr Noel.

“The average energy it will produce would be equivalent to the energy consumed in a year by two to four hundred homes,” says Mr Helming, “We’re going to be the owner of the project, we’re selling the energy on a long-term contract to Xcel Energy, and we have a lease with the City of Eau Claire.”

Interested citizens were invited to participate in the construction process.

“Solar RAQ has opened this opportunity up for the community to participate, to say they had a hand in it,” says Mr Noel.

“I thought it’d be a really cool opportunity to come out and see how solar farms are erected on site, see how the infrastructure all goes together. It’s been a really cool learning experience,” says volunteer Benjamin Kufahl.

“Figured I’d help out. Anything to help the planet,” says fellow volunteer Marlayna Buss.

“Gave us a vest and a hard hat, and it was only a couple minutes of training, and we just went out and started putting stuff together,” adds Benjamin.

Okay, so who’s getting the power?

“This is considered a community solar garden, so all of the energy produced here is going to stay in the community,” explains Mr. Helming.

How does a community solar garden work?

“Contact Xcel Energy and ask to subscribe, and then basically the energy that’s produced here at the solar farm would be credited back to your home or business,” explains Mr Noel, “Our city council thought that it was very important to actually subscribe too, and so they subscribed to over 100 kW to completely offset the the electricity needs for our Farifax municipal swimming pool.” Benjamin says, “I was just coming out today to install it, but I didn’t realize it was accessible to all Xcel customers, so that’s something I’m gonna be looking into.”

So how does a solar panel transform sunlight into electricity?

“You have the silicon wafers flat on a panel which face the sun as much as possible. And the sun strikes the silicon wafers and it creates a string of electrons which is electricity,” explains Steve Terwilliger, local solar advocate, “The stronger the sunlight, the more electricity is generated.”

But Wisconsin is not known for its strong sunlight, does solar still make sense is Eau Claire?

“Solar works anywhere. There’s solar in the Arctic, there’s solar in Antarctica. You just don’t have as many hours of sunlight, and you don’t have as much direct sunlight. But the cost of solar has been dropping so fast: approximately a 85-90% cost reduction in just the last four years,” explains Mr Helming, “Now we’re under construction and expect the project to be operational, flip the switch so it’s producing energy, by late September.”

Marlayna adds, “It’s been really good. I’ve learned a lot in just the short amount of time that I’ve been here, and it’s been nice to help out with the project.”

Micah Davis reporting for CVCTV.org

[related_posts_by_tax format=”links” image_size=”medium” posts_per_page=”3″]