Northwest Ohio is quickly becoming a leader in green energy. Not only is the new facility helping to keep the lights on, it is creating jobs in the process. Under the blaring sunshine, American Municipal Power (AMP), along with the city of Napoleon cut the ribbon on a 3.54 mega watt solar generation facility. AMP CEO Marc Gerken said, "our members buy into the sustainability aspect of this and we want to be cleaner, safer and healthier".
After just 5 months of construction, the 4 acre plot contains 17,160 solar panels which will collect enough energy to power 485 homes for at least the next 25 years with minimal maintenance. It is currently one of the largest solar projects in the state. Gerken says this is just a sign of things to come,"right now Napoleon is taking all of the output, we are subscribing to other members to take additional output. Napoleon will take a minimum of 1 MW out of the 3.54 MW"
The green energy source does come at a price. The facility will cost about 10 million dollars. The price tag is too high to slash your energy bill. Gerken said, "actually this probably won't lower their costs...this is going to be about $85 a mega watt hour and that is what the anticipated costs were. This is a small part of napoleon's overall portfolio so it won't impact their rates that much".
Even if other energy sources spike in price, this facility will continue to create power every time the sun rises. Gerken said, "it is very forecast able for us. Our people on our energy desk are watching this so we know exactly what is coming".
Not only is Napoleon the home of this new solar generation facility, it is also the new home to Isofoton North America Solar Panel Manufacturing Plant which is bringing green energy jobs to the area.
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