All signs are pointing toward the arrival of a solar energy farm in Kokomo by the end of the year.
Solar integration company Inovateus Solar has submitted a lease proposal for a solar energy farm at 1400 Markland Avenue, which will be considered by the Board of Public Works during a public hearing Jan. 21 at 10 a.m. in Council Chambers, 100 S. Union St.
The company submitted the lone proposal to the city’s Request for Proposals for Renewable Energy Easement or Lease for the property, which is the home of the former Continental Steel Superfund site and is approximately 50 acres in size.
Because the lease proposal, which is for a minimum of 20 years, exceeds $25,000 a year, the Common Council must approve the project after the Board of Public Works, according to City Engineer Carey Stranahan.
The date for the Common Council approval has not yet been set, said Stranahan.
“The biggest benefit for this project is that the land was basically unusable and now we can help the city utilize it,” Inovateus Solar Senior Account Executive Austin Williams said. “We saw Kokomo’s opportunity and we decided to go get it.”
Invoateus Solar is expected to begin producing renewable energy at the Markland site, which will provide nearly nine million kilowatt hours of energy per year, by the end of 2015, according to Williams.
To put that number in perspective, an average house will use 10 to 15,000 killowat hours each year, Williams said.
Duke Energy announced in a press release Tuesday that it has signed 20-year agreements with three solar developers, including Invoateus Solar, to purchase the solar power for its Indiana customers.
“We knew that Duke Energy Indiana was lagging behind their other territories a bit, so we were excited to work with them when we noticed they were looking for solar power partners,” Williams said.
Construction is expected to take close to two months and is expected to be finished by fall, said Williams.
“The reason we were interested in turning this property into a renewable energy opportunity is because we can reuse property that previously compromised the environment,” said Stranahan.
The city acquired the Continental Steel Superfund site in a commissioner’s sale last July, according to Stranahan.
“There are a lot of environmental benefits to this project,” said Stranahan. "Solar energy has a very low impact on the environment, which was attractive to us. This also reduces maintenance by the city. We will be receiving revenue, but we will not have to invest too many resources.”
In 1986, Continental Steel went bankrupt, leaving its 183-acre property contaminated with solvents, PCBs and lead. The site was then added to the EPA’s National Priority List in 1989.
IDEM and EPA began implementing green remediation at the site in 1997, which led to more than $40 million is remediation costs, according to EPA estimates.
"Rather than use land that can be put to other uses, we can help the city with a useless site," said Williams.
Williams expects everything throughout the process to go smoothly.
“We have some hurdles to jump, but we are all very excited about this,” said Williams. “Once the administration side of things get finalized, we will be ready to go."