FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 16, 2015
Contacts:
Steve Patterson, 501-537-0190 or steve@arkansasadvancedenergy.com?
Ken Smith, 501-912-1090 or info@arkansasadvancedenergy.com
Little Rock, AR – Ozarks Electric Cooperative Corporation (OECC) filed an application this month with the Arkansas Public Service Commission (APSC) for approval of the utility’s program tariff to establish a 1 MW community solar project in Springdale, AR, according to public documents filed at the APSC.
If approved by the APSC, the proposed Ozarks Natural Energy (ONE) Solar Program Tariff will become an opportunity for Ozarks Coop customers to generate a portion of their electricity through a community solar project. OECC will own and operate the ONE Solar facility while selling up to 4,080 shares to customers at $340 per share. Customers may purchase up to 100 shares.
One condition of the program limits the amount of energy produced by a customer’s purchased shares to an amount not to exceed the total annual usage by the customer’s account. During each monthly billing period, a credit will be applied to the participating customer’s account based on the actual energy produced by that customer’s purchased ONE Solar shares multiplied by an energy rate credit factor per kwh (scheduled to be 4 cents per kwh in the first year).
The credit amount will be adjusted annually for changes in the wholesale cost of power paid by OECC to its parent entity AECC. At 4 cents per kwh a share or panel module producing 541 kwh in the first year, the revenue credit to the participating customer is $21.63. OECC projects an estimated 7.6% return on investment and a payback of just over 13 years for ONE Solar customers.
OECC officials testified to the APSC that ONE Solar will produce 2.2 million kwh in the first year with a projected kwh output of 53,839,250 kwh over the 25-year life of the project. The community solar facility is projected to reduce carbon emissions by 1765 tons per year or 43,071 tons over 25 years.
OECC’s One Solar Program is the latest initiative through Today’s Power, Inc., a subsidiary of Arkansas Electric Cooperatives, Inc., to provide renewable energy resources for its customers. OECC’s One Solar Program was announced in Little Rock on September 4th.
MORE RESOURCES:
Arkansans Support EPA’s Clean Power Plan according to a poll by Impact Management Group commissioned earlier this year by the Arkansas Advanced Energy Foundation, 67 percent of Arkansans support the Clean Power Plan both before and after hearing arguments for and against it. See a briefing on the poll here: http://www.arkansasadvancedenergyfoundation.org/files/dmfile/AAEF.PPT.pdf
Arkansas Advanced Energy Association is a business group dedicated to growing Arkansas’s economy by expanding our energy workforce and manufacturing base through the increased development, manufacture, and utilization of advanced energy technologies. www.arkansasadvancedenergy.com
The Arkansas Advanced Energy Foundation is the educational affiliate of the AAEA. The Foundation promotes greater public understanding of advanced energy in Arkansas through research, public education programs and economic and workforce development. The Foundation is dedicated to informing the energy policy debate with well-researched, fact-based data on the advanced energy economy in Arkansas and by providing a public forum where state leaders can address Arkansas’s energy challenges for the future. www.arkansasadvancedenergyfoundation.org
Follow Arkansas Advanced Energy on Twitter @ArkAdvEnergy and like “Arkansas Advanced Energy Association” on Facebook.
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