A year and a half in, solar array showing its worth for county

By VINCENT CORSO
[email protected]

BELLEFONTE — The solar array that powers the Centre County Correctional Facility went online last January, and the commissioners said, so far, it has been a success.

Based on the recorded numbers since the array started generating power, the project is on track to save the county an expected $4.3 to $6.6 million over the 40-year lifespan of the system, said county deputy administrator John C. Franek Jr., during a presentation to county commissioners about the system on July 27.

Prior to powering with the array, the correctional facility had the highest electricity usage of all the county buildings, costing Centre more than $100,000 a year, according to Commissioner Mark Higgins.

“It is very cool to see that our correctional facility has gone from using a lot of energy to being a net power producer,” said Higgins.

“Yes, this has been a very positive project from a financial standpoint and for the environment,” said Franek.

The snapshots of system stats at 2 p.m. on June 7 show the system was producing 801.82 KW with a total of 3.47 MWh that day. Up to that day this year, the system had produced 655.09 MWh and a total of 1.94 GW of power over its lifetime.

“So those are some impressive numbers,” said Franek.

He added that from an environmental standpoint, the system has offset the equivalent of 150,469 gallons of gasoline and 969,629 gallons of water usage and is off-setting carbon at the equivalent of 34,288 planted trees.

Franek shared 3-day production comparisons that showed how the energy production can fluctuate based on weather patterns.

He said cold weather in December and January are good for energy production, but the shorter days and cloudy skies cause production to be lower in the winter.

Peak production for the facility occurred in July 2020, when it produced 192,733 kWhs. The low month was in December 2020, when it only produced 50,333 kWhs.

“Now, that December number, even though it is low, is still fairly good, considering,” said Franek, noting that this is made possible because the county purchased bi-facial panels that collect sunlight from above and light reflected from below.

“So, when there is snow on the ground, and the sun is hitting that snow and reflecting light up, we are actually generating energy indirectly,” he said.

Over the course of the system, Franek said, the county has made $736,100 in system payments and has $32,556 in credit balance for excess production from the array.

The county has also received more than $45,000 in solar renewable energy credits from the system.

“As you know with grid-tied energy solar-production facilities, energy ebbs and flows to and from the grid,” said Franek.

He said when the sun is down, the correctional facility is powered from the grid and, when the system is operating correctly when the sun comes up, excess energy generated is then pushed back into the grid.

“At this point in time we had received 845,399 kWh from West Penn Power; however, we had pushed to West Penn over a million kilowatts — over a gigawatt,” said Franek.

The county entered into a $1.67 million, 25-year contract with Centre County Solar Partners LLC for the construction, operation, maintenance and repair of the system in 2019. In January, the county will do a bi-annual report to determine if the system is living up to its promised potential and could receive credits if it is not delivering anticipated results. But Franek said it looks as if that will not be an issue based on the current numbers.

“It looks like we are right on par with what we anticipated, so we are in good shape from that standpoint,” said Franek.

Commissioner Michael Pipe said that after all the work that went into the project, it was good to see things going as planned.

“We have about 18 months of data and it is nice to see it is working,” said Pipe. “So, we hope for many sunny days ahead.”