Pinckneyville Wastewater Treatment Plant Solar Array

We installed a 449.28 kW array for the City of Pickneyville in 2017. The installation took place at their Wastewater Treatment Plant, which uses a lot of energy to clean wastewater for the city. In the first year this array produced about 594,000 kWh. This project is unique because it was built under a Power Purchase Agreement, or PPA. There are companies that will purchase solar arrays for governments and nonprofits because those entities cannot take the tax credits for solar, which makes it less financially advantageous. However, a company can pay for the system and take the tax benefits and then charge the entity for the power  it uses at a cheaper rate than the utility currently offers. Therefore, Pickneyville had a solar array built on their property, but was paid for by SHINE Partners. Pickneyville pays SHINE for the cheaper power that the solar array produces and can buy the array from SHINE after a certain period of time. The first year of this agreement Pickneyville saved about $35,000 on electricity costs to run the plant.