{"id":535,"date":"2012-08-28T17:35:23","date_gmt":"2012-08-28T21:35:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/15mw-solar-field-near-philadelphia.html"},"modified":"2012-08-28T17:35:23","modified_gmt":"2012-08-28T21:35:23","slug":"15mw-solar-field-near-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/15mw-solar-field-near-philadelphia.html","title":{"rendered":"1.5MW solar field near Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nFar to the north of here, a botanical garden installed\nmore than a megawatt of solar power a year ago.\nMaybe Georgia Power should ask them how it’s done.\n<\/p>\n

\nPR of 16 June 2011,\n\nLONGWOOD GARDENS COMMISSIONS 10-ACRE SOLAR FIELD:\nInstallation first step of goal to achieve 3 MW of solar energy by 2018<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n\n<\/a>\nJune 16, 2011, Kennett Square, PA \u2014 Longwood Gardens today\ncommissioned a new, ground-mounted solar field spanning more than 10\nacres at the horticultural showplace in Kennett Square,\nPennsylvania.\n<\/p>\n

\nOne of the largest examples of clean emission-free energy in the\nregion, the solar field produces 1.2 MW (megawatts) of power and\nwill produce 1.5 MW when the final panels are installed in the\ncoming weeks. The fixed-tilt, 1.5 MW solar installation will produce\nenough electricity to offset the usage of approximately 138 average\nPennsylvania homes and reduce Longwood’s annual carbon dioxide\nemissions by 1,367 tons.\n<\/p>\n

\n“We are always looking for ways to advance our sustainable\npractices,\u201d said Paul Redman, Longwood Gardens Director.\n\u201cIt is integral to Longwood’s mission to decrease our\ndependence on fossil fuels.\u201d We want to establish best\npractices and lead the way in showing communities how to live\nresponsibly,\u201d said Redman.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nImagine if Georgia Power and Southern Company acted responsibly\nand led the way in solar power!\n<\/p>\n\n\n

\n

\nLongwood Gardens is partnering with two leading solar energy firms\non the project. GroSolar of Burlington, VT is engineering and\ninstalling the grid-tied field, which consists of two arrays and\nmore than 5,000 panels. New York-based EcogySolar owns and operates\nthe arrays through a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). Through the\nPPA, EcogySolar owns the solar equipment and will sell the power\nproduced to Longwood Gardens. The panels were manufactured by Motech\nAmericas of Delaware. In more than 90% of the materials for the\nproject were made in the US.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nThat’s like the\n\nPPA for a 6.1 MW solar system at a school in New Jersey.<\/a>\n\n<\/a>\nBut you can’t do a PPA like that in Georgia, because of the\n\n1973 Georgia Territorial Electric Service Act.<\/a>\nImagine if Georgia Power and Southern Company helped change that Act\nso you could generate power and sell it on an open market!\nIf Georgia Power was leading the way, we’d probably be developing\nmore of a solar industry right here in Georgia.\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n\n<\/a>\nAlthough the solar field is not located in a public area of the\nGardens, Longwood’s more than 900,000 annual guests can learn about\nsolar power in the Idea Garden, where an 18-foot tall flower-shaped\nsolar demonstration system is installed.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nAs I type, Longwood’s solar field is producing about 650 kilowatts AC at 5PM,\naccording to\n\nthe Longwood Gardens solar information page.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n\n<\/a>\nLike Austin, Texas, Longwood Gardens understands solar is\nnot only a direct economic benefit, it’s also a way to\nadvertise for your facility and community.\n<\/p>\n

\nRight here in Lowndes County we have a perfect location for that:\n\nLowndes High School,<\/a>\nvisible to every car and truck on I-75,\nand to every plane landing at the airport.\nThey can do it in New Jersey.\nThey can do it in Pennsylvania.\nBut we can’t do it in Georgia.\nMaybe we should elect some Public Service Commissioners\nand legislators who will change that.\n<\/p>\n

\n-jsq\n<\/p>\n

\nPS: Owed to Karen Noll.\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Far to the north of here, a botanical garden installed more than a megawatt of solar power a year ago. Maybe Georgia Power should ask them how it’s done. PR of 16 June 2011, LONGWOOD GARDENS COMMISSIONS 10-ACRE SOLAR FIELD: Installation first step of goal to achieve 3 MW of solar energy by 2018 June […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[14,15,49,16,17,8,18,2,19,20,21,22,23,24],"tags":[8704,8705,8721,8706,8707,8701,8708,8699,8709,8702,8710,1797,12,7,279,33,1798,8711,8712,8713,8714,108,971,6],"class_list":["post-535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-education","category-elections","category-environment","category-ga-psc","category-georgia","category-georgia-power","category-government","category-history","category-law","category-planning","category-politics","category-renewable-energy","category-solar","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-elections","tag-environment","tag-ga-psc","tag-georgia","tag-georgia-power","tag-government","tag-history","tag-lake","tag-law","tag-longwood-gardens","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-lowndes-high-school","tag-new-jersey","tag-pennsylvania","tag-planning","tag-politics","tag-renewable-energy","tag-solar","tag-southern-company","tag-territorial-electric-service-act","tag-valdosta"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-8D","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}