DP&L announces second solar power array in region

DP&L’s solar arrays

About 300 solar panels will be built on the Mound hillside and will power the equivalent of 5 to 8 houses.

Mound will generate 5 percent of what DP&L’s Yankee solar array in Washington Twp. will generate when it begins operation in April. The Mound panels will tie into the nearest building and will offset energy use by businesses housed there.

DAYTON — A second large-scale solar array in southwestern Ohio will be built by Dayton Power and Light Co. at the Mound Advanced Technology Center in Miamisburg.

The $400,000 array will generate 60 kilowatts of power, enough to provide electricity up to eight homes. But that isn’t the only purpose.

The installation, among just a handful under way in the state so far, is intended to help the utility better understand solar power’s potential here as it works to meet state mandates to shift to renewable energy sources, DP&L said.

More renewable energy projects also could help jump-start Midwestern manufacturing by increasing demand for solar panel and wind turbine components and boosting prospects for new energy technologies.

“It’s incumbent on us to not wait for new technology to arrive from some other state or country, but to get in a position to capture market share,” Mike Graulwelman, president of the not-for-profit Mound Community Improvement Corp., said Monday, March 15.

The Mound’s goal is to eventually generate all of its own power, Grauwelman said.

The Mound, a former Department of Energy weapons site, now houses 14 firms that employ 350 people in research and development and manufacturing. Businesses there conduct key research in hydrogen fuel cells, nuclear energy and battery technology, Grauwelman said.

“The installation at Mound supports the city of Miamisburg’s efforts to develop the site as an energy park,” said Teresa Marrinan, the utility’s senior vice president, commercial operations.

The solar panels will be situated on a southern-facing hillside at Mound and should be completed by summer. The array follows a larger 1.1-megawatt solar installation being built at the utility’s Yankee substation in Washington Twp.

The state’s renewable energy legislation requires that 25 percent of all electricity sold in Ohio come from alternative energy by 2025. Wind, solar, hydroelectric power, geothermal, and biomass must account for at least half of that.

Melink Corp. of Cincinnati is the general contractor, the utility said Monday. The project is being overseen by the utility's unregulated subsidiary, DPL Energy Resources.

What kind of panels will be used at Mound?

The panels will be ground-mounted crystalline silicon at 200 watts each. These take up less space than the ones we used at Yankee, which are amorphous silicon at 125 watts per panel. For comparison, thin film solar is 70 watts per panel.

The utility included the following Questions and Answers as part of its announcement:

What makes a location a good site for solar?

Our goal is to spend prudently while meeting the requirements of Ohio’s Energy Legislation. Solar projects need to be close to transmission lines; easily secured or policed and as “construction ready” as possible. The site at Mound does not require much clearing or preparation and the hillside is facing south, at a good angle for solar, but is not valuable real estate for buildings.

You have a choice of purchasing renewable energy credits on the open market or building renewable energy projects. Why build?

We tried to meet our 2009 solar requirement by purchasing Renewable Energy Credits (RECs). There were not enough RECs (particularly Ohio RECs) for solar in 2010. The current Yankee solar project meets the company’s 2010 solar requirement and the Mound project adds to that.

To meet the 2011 requirements, it is too far in the future to say if it would be less expensive for us to purchase solar RECs, than to expand our Yankee or Mound solar arrays. The market for these RECs is very new, as is the demand for solar.

Why is DP&L building another solar installation when Ohio doesn’t get that much sun compared to other states?

We are studying solar while meeting the requirements of Ohio energy legislation (Amended Substitute Senate Bill No.221) which includes targets for generating electricity with solar. We can learn what potential solar has for use in our area.

Our payback includes the energy produced as well as the renewable energy credits (RECs) that we need for compliance with Ohio’s Energy Legislation. Our Mound Solar Array will make approximately 70 RECs every year it is in service.

How does the cost of solar compare to coal?

According to the Edison Electric Institute, building a solar array costs one and a half times as much as new a coal plant:

Power for five homes doesn’t seem like much? How do you calculate output?

There is no one standard for this calculation, so you can see wide variations. For example, some people calculate as if the sun shines 24 hours a day. We did not do that. We calculated power generated during daylight hours only.

Our part of Ohio only gets about 20% equivalent full sunlight hours per day. Also you have to factor in that different regions of the U.S. have different “typical” electrical usage. Our calculation is conservative and accounts for these factors.

The best way to compare numbers is to take the total yearly electricity usage for a typical home and then the total yearly electricity generated by the solar array and do the comparison, which is what we did. Here's an example of another organization, Harvard University, which calculates the way we do.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7407 or sbennish@DaytonDailyNews.com.