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State and local officials finalized an agreement June 15 to build a state-of-the-art solar power plant in Dover that will generate enough electricity to power 1,300 homes.
The 10-megawatt Dover SUN Park facility will be located on 103 acres in the city’s Garrison Oak Technology Park off White Oak Road and is scheduled to be up and running by next summer.
At a signing ceremony at City Hall, Gov. Jack Markell said the SUN Park project represents a leap forward for the state.
“We have been very engaged in terms of trying to promote sustainable energy and energy efficiency in Delaware,” he said. “We want to do everything we possibly can to be a leader.”
When completed, the facility will be the largest of its kind in the region and it’s output will rank Delaware third among states in terms of solar power generated per resident, just behind California.
Dr. John Byrne, co-chairman of the state’s Sustainable Energy Utility, which helped facilitate the project, said it only happened because officials at all levels of government have made green power a priority.
“A policy environment has been created to allow us to do projects like this,” he said.
New York-based firm LS Power will build and operate the $50 million plant on land leased from the city. Construction on the massive arrays of solar collecting panels is to begin later this year.
Dover’s electric utility has agreed to purchase all of the power generated by the plant and keep 15% of the renewable energy credits the facility is eligible for.
The rest of the credits will be purchased by Delmarva Power and the Delaware Municipal Electric Corporation, a consortium of the nine Delaware cities that own electric utilities.
State law requires electric utilities generate a percentage of their power from renewable sources, or purchase credits produced by renewable energy facilities on the open market.
Dover City Manager Tony DePrima said buying power from the SUN Park may cost the city’s utility slightly more in the short term, but those increases likely will be cancelled out by the sale of credits.
In the long term, he said, solar power is expected to become cheaper as the price of fossil fuels rises.
DePrima also said the project represents an important economic initiative for the city.
In addition to creating as many as 150 construction jobs, the SUN Park is expected to jumpstart development at the Garrison Oak site, which has sat vacant since it was established.
“This project is about economic development,” DePrima said. “This is a 100-acre project within a 387-acre industrial park that has been zoned for jobs for over 10 years.”
Email Doug Denison at doug.denison@doverpost.com.
State and local officials finalized an agreement June 15 to build a state-of-the-art solar power plant in Dover that will generate enough electricity to power 1,300 homes.
The 10-megawatt Dover SUN Park facility will be located on 103 acres in the city’s Garrison Oak Technology Park off White Oak Road and is scheduled to be up and running by next summer.
At a signing ceremony at City Hall, Gov. Jack Markell said the SUN Park project represents a leap forward for the state.
“We have been very engaged in terms of trying to promote sustainable energy and energy efficiency in Delaware,” he said. “We want to do everything we possibly can to be a leader.”
When completed, the facility will be the largest of its kind in the region and it’s output will rank Delaware third among states in terms of solar power generated per resident, just behind California.
Dr. John Byrne, co-chairman of the state’s Sustainable Energy Utility, which helped facilitate the project, said it only happened because officials at all levels of government have made green power a priority.
“A policy environment has been created to allow us to do projects like this,” he said.
New York-based firm LS Power will build and operate the $50 million plant on land leased from the city. Construction on the massive arrays of solar collecting panels is to begin later this year.
Dover’s electric utility has agreed to purchase all of the power generated by the plant and keep 15% of the renewable energy credits the facility is eligible for.
The rest of the credits will be purchased by Delmarva Power and the Delaware Municipal Electric Corporation, a consortium of the nine Delaware cities that own electric utilities.
State law requires electric utilities generate a percentage of their power from renewable sources, or purchase credits produced by renewable energy facilities on the open market.
Dover City Manager Tony DePrima said buying power from the SUN Park may cost the city’s utility slightly more in the short term, but those increases likely will be cancelled out by the sale of credits.
In the long term, he said, solar power is expected to become cheaper as the price of fossil fuels rises.
DePrima also said the project represents an important economic initiative for the city.
In addition to creating as many as 150 construction jobs, the SUN Park is expected to jumpstart development at the Garrison Oak site, which has sat vacant since it was established.
“This project is about economic development,” DePrima said. “This is a 100-acre project within a 387-acre industrial park that has been zoned for jobs for over 10 years.”
Email Doug Denison at doug.denison@doverpost.com.
