Gas City celebrated the addition of a second solar park with a ribbon-cutting on Thursday.
The park is a result of the City collaborating with Indiana Municipal Power Agency (IMPA), Gas City’s not-for-profit wholesale power provider. Energy produced by the solar panels will all remain local and be consumed by homes and businesses in Gas City, in addition to electricity generated by other facilities.
“The best thing about IMPA-owned solar in the community is the community sees it, they know whose it is, and they know where the power is going in there,” Jack Alvey, IMPA president and CEO, said at the ribbon-cutting. “It’s going right here to the homes and businesses of Gas City.”
Made up of 4920 recyclable solar panels with a 25-year performance warranty on 12.7 acres of land along S. 600 E. in Gas City, the facility will produce enough energy annually to power 320 homes.
It is the second IMPA solar park in Gas City, and the City is currently considering the addition of a third. Both the current sites and the prospective third site are areas that were undevelopable. Rock said that the solar parks are not taking away farmland from Gas City and that most people will not even notice it is there.
“It’s not an eyesore. As a matter of fact, I had a couple of people ask me about Solar 1 today,” Gas City Mayor Bill Rock said. “‘So you’ve got another one?’ I said, ‘yeah, you just drove by it.’ Because it’s right off at 22, between Gas City and Upland, and a lot of people don’t even notice it.”
“Now, we’ll be making over $100,000 a year in taxable contributions, and over the expected lifetime of the Solar Park 2, it should contribute millions of dollars to our city in property taxes,” Rock continued. “And it also can bolster economic development as, you know, renewable energy or power is really marketable right now to a prospective business and industries in the world today.”
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