Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Georgetown solar farm addition should be complete by years end

A solar farm in Georgetown is being dramatically expanded.

 

The Delaware Electric Cooperative’s Bruce A. Henry Solar Farm currently houses 16,000 solar panels on a 23-acre site.

But Co-Op president and CEO Bill Andrew says earlier this year, the utility signed an agreement with retail energy provider Constellation - to nearly double its size, “We had a shovel ready site and they (Constellation) had a very tight time frame they needed to work with. So it worked out great. We will be able to buy the power at a very competitive rate for a long period of time, at a very stable rate (over the next 25 years).”

Andrew says Constellation is already at work building its 17-acre addition to the solar farm.

He notes the new solar panels are expected to provide enough energy to power more than 400 homes. And the combined 40-acres of panels at the site should  produce enough energy to power nearly 1,000 homes. 

Andrew says work on the expansion should be done by the end of this year, “We’ve been notified that it’ll be completed by the end of the year. So we’re looking forward to it go online commercially sometime in early January. It’s going to produce enough energy to supply a little more than 400 homes with pure solar energy.”

The solar farm  has been operating since 2013.

Kelli Steele has over 30 years of experience covering news in Delaware, Baltimore, Winchester, Virginia, Phoenix, Arizona and San Diego, California.