Rain or shine — and there has been a lot of rainfall for the back half of May — 4 Rivers’ new sun farm has been performing well.
The new facility, now part of the utility’s Americus substation at Roads 260 and M, officially came online May 10. General Manager Dennis Svanes says the sun-tracking component actually came online May 19, and despite frequent cloud cover and all the rain chances, energy production spiked.
Over 3,500 solar panels have been installed, each generating 400 watts of power. The facility can push out around 1.4 megawatts of energy, but it’s licensed for a megawatt — just like a similar sun farm outside Fredonia.
4 Rivers and other electric cooperatives are partnering with Today’s Power out of Arkansas to produce 20 megawatts of energy. Locally, this follows the construction of Southern Power’s Reading Wind Facility last year and Evergy’s Emporia Energy Center peak usage plant in 2008.
4 Rivers will have a “Flip the Switch” event June 21 on Facebook Live for the official start.
