News Story

IMPA’s solar program reached its 10th anniversary this summer, achieving nearly 200 megawatts (MWs) of solar capacity through 50 solar parks established in member communities. Over the last decade, the program grew from a novel idea to a meaningful portion of IMPA’s overall power supply portfolio. The power generated by these solar parks contributes to the diversity of IMPA’s power resources, playing a vital role in the Agency’s mission of providing low-cost, reliable, and environmentally responsible electricity.

Back in 2013, IMPA and its Board of Commissioners were still unsure of the viability of solar power. While some investor-owned utilities were incorporating large, local solar farms into their power supply portfolio, IMPA was hesitant about the actual cost and performance of solar power generation. After careful study of the possibilities of solar, the IMPA Board approved small-scale demonstration solar projects comprised of three, 1-megawatt (MW) parks owned and operated by IMPA in member communities to further analyze the resource’s potential. With design oversight and construction in the hands of IMPA, and the solar parks constructed in three IMPA communities, the Agency’s staff and commissioners would directly learn from this pilot program whether more solar projects made economic sense for the Agency as a whole.

In 2014, three 1-MW solar parks came online in the member communities of Frankton, Rensselaer, and Richmond, Indiana and began contributing to IMPA’s portfolio. The Frankton and Rensselaer sites housed fixed-tilt solar panels that were permanently mounted southern-facing at 25 degrees from horizontal to maximize annual energy production. The Richmond solar park was designed differently, including single axis tracking panels that tracked the sun as it rose in the east and set in the west. These differences in construction design allowed IMPA to examine the efficacy of each for potential future projects.

These three solar parks performed exceedingly well in their first partial year of operation, generating 1.5 million kilowatt hours through 2014 and expanding IMPA staff’s knowledge of solar power. Since all three of the parks had also been constructed under their allotted budget, the Agency’s Board and staff were confident in developing more solar projects at even larger scales in a cost-effective manner.

Since 2014, IMPA has established 50 solar parks in 29 different member communities, most of which feature single axis tracking panels like the original Richmond Solar Park. The generation created at each of these parks is consumed within the member community that the park is in, directly benefiting utility customers. Each solar park also contributes to the diversity of IMPA’s power supply portfolio, which increases the reliability of the Agency’s supply. The communities with IMPA solar parks in their service territory benefit by IMPA keeping the investments local along with the property taxes that IMPA pays. The communities also can leverage these facilities in business attraction since renewable energy is increasingly marketable. These benefits only continue to advance as IMPA optimizes the solar construction process and finds new ways to create these opportunities at low costs.

“Through the years of learning, we’ve gone from contracting out the engineering work to completing all engineering work in-house, which contributes to cost saving measures and a deep knowledge base,” said Jack Alvey, President and CEO of IMPA. “We’ve established a fruitful relationship with Brandt Construction for construction management portions of our solar projects, and we’ve worked with taxable entities to achieve savings through federal investment tax credits before having direct access to the savings ourselves.”

IMPA is the only public power agency in the United States that has created, built, owned, and operated a solar program of this size and scale. The Agency’s unique strategy of building solar facilities in its member communities benefits IMPA’s power supply portfolio, member tax revenue, and overall transmission costs. With 10 years of success under its belt, IMPA looks forward to four upcoming solar parks in Richmond, Tipton, Veedersburg, and Winamac, which will bring approximately 13 additional megawatts online.

As the nation’s and world’s power supply makeup changes to include more renewables and legislation and policy changes create stricter regulations for power utilities, IMPA is prepared to continue providing reliable power to its member communities with assets like its solar program. The innovative ideas that IMPA explored a decade ago have allowed the Agency to safeguard its power supply portfolio over the last 10 years and the decades to come. In this way, IMPA’s solar parks allow for a bright future.

For more information about IMPA’s solar parks, visit www.impa.com/solar.