(Credit: Pixabay)Logansport, Indiana’s first-ever solar power plant is now under construction. Inovateus is developing the installation for Logansport Municipal Utility (LMU). Financed by a power purchase agreement (PPA), the solar installation will reduce LMU's carbon emissions, help to stabilize energy costs for LMU's customers, and also host a bee and butterfly habitat that will benefit agriculture in the surrounding area.
The 80-acre 16 megawatt (MW AC) solar installation marks a new milestone for the municipal utility. For over 120 years, the city has relied on an LMU coal-fired power plant that was recently retired. The 30-year PPA, financed by Alchemy Renewable Energy, allows LMU to purchase the clean solar generation at a fixed kilowatt-hour rate with no upfront capital costs. The contract also includes options for LMU to buy the solar energy system at a future date.
Inovateus is further helping the community by designing a solar education program to engage schools in the Logansport Community School Corporation and launching a college scholarship contest for naming the solar park. To help maintain the neighborhood around the solar park, Inovateus designed a 45-foot vegetation buffer around the solar array.
