Grand Island Utilities completes preparations for solar farm construction

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (KSNB) – Grand Island Utilities is about a month away from commissioning its solar energy farm.

The farm has over 21,600 solar panels that are already installed and ready to use once the electronic components arrive.

The project broke ground in June on 46 acres of land north of JBS Swift. The solar panels are expected to produce 9.9 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 10,000 homes.

The project also received a $116,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to fund the project.

Grand Island Utilities process engineer Jason Rezek said weather conditions here in Nebraska are ideal for such a project.

“We have a lot of sunny days a year,” Rezek said. “We’re much better than, say, Seattle, where it rains pretty consistently. It’s usually sunny most days, summer, winter, less often in spring or fall.”

Rezek also said that the project is in its final stages, but there are still a few steps left before the solar panels are launched.

“All 21,600 panels have been installed and all DC wiring has been run to the inverters,” Rezek said. “We are now working on the AC wires, pulling them through the transformer pads and the recloser pads. Then, once the reclosers and transformers arrive on site, the system will need to be put into operation quickly.”

He also said the next steps would include controlling vegetation growth, for which sheep would be used as a means.

“We’re looking at a few different seed mixtures that could be planted under the panels to control vegetation, but we want to do some testing to see if they’re suitable for grazing conditions,” Rezek said. “We want to get some sheep for grazing to preserve the grass.”

Rezek also said one benefit for the utilities department is that it will take pressure off other forms of electricity because it will be active during sunny hours of the day. Another advantage is that a solar farm requires minimal maintenance compared to other types of utility-scale installations.

The goal of a solar farm is to add another source of energy, not to trade one source for another.

“We will not shut down any carbon services because of this plant,” Rezek said. “We are not going to decommission the coal power plant because of this, we are not going to change anything in our gas peaking power units. This is an additional generation that we are going to expand our capabilities.”

The solar power plant is expected to be fully operational by December.

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