2011年7月17日星期日

Solar power station coming to Newark brownfield

An abandoned warehouse site that sits behind a child care center and the former Excel Academy Activities Center east of Dayton Road is set to become the home of a solar energy field.

The former Newark Processing Co. site has been empty since the company's closure in 1997.The additions focus on key tag and dstti combinations, Portions of concrete walls still stand on the 66-acre site,Demand for allergy Bedding could rise earlier than normal this year. surrounded by heaping black mounds of aluminum dross.

By the end of the year, the site should be remediated and cleared of current structures, creating the foundation for 6,000 solar panels that would generate energy for the city of Newark's nearby wastewater plant.

"It's just completely useless. It's an eyesore,Als lichtbron wordt een Projector Lamp gebruikt," Mayor Bob Diebold said of the land as it is now.

The panels will sit on 24 acres and generate up to 1.5 megawatts of electricity.
'No downside'

City officials have chosen Westerville solar-development firm SolarVision LLC to manage the project, which will be built later this year by Dovetail Solar and Wind, of Athens. Newark City Council in June voted to allow the administration to negotiate a solar power purchase agreement.

Contract details are being finalized, but Diebold and Development Director Kim Burton emphasized two points: Newark is paying for none of the equipment or installation and will pay a discounted rate on the electricity the panels generate for the city's wastewater-treatment plant.

"There's no downside to it," Diebold said. "It comes down to, yes or no, do you want to save money on your electric bill?"

The savings will be to the wastewater department's budget and won't affect the city's general fund. The savings should benefit Newark residents, Burton said.

"That's a savings for their operations," she said. "It helps out the community as a whole.he believes the fire started after the lift's hydraulic hose blew,"

Although he couldn't pinpoint how many jobs the field would create, Diebold said it should lead to construction jobs this year and maintenance jobs in the future which will be paid for by SolarVision.

"Who's going to mow the grass? Who's going to remove the snow in the winter?" Diebold said.

He also hopes the project will lead to further development in the area and will signal to developers that Newark is open to new technology.
How it works

SolarVision and its group of investors are footing the bill for the system's installation and maintenance. In return, Burton said, the company will be able to sell renewable energy credits to American Electric Power, which is required to up its generation from solar resources to 0.5 percent by 2024.

Newark also will pay, to SolarVision, a slightly discounted rate for the solar energy the wastewater plant uses. Estimates show about 30 percent of the plant's yearly energy will come from the solar field, Burton said, with AEP still providing the rest.

"AEP will be picking up the solar panels' slack," she said.

Currently, the plant pays 7 to 7.5 cents per kilowatt hour to AEP, totaling between $25,000 and $30,000 per month.

"We'll probably start pretty close to that for the first couple (of years)," she said. "We'll start seeing a savings probably after the first year."

The city's solar energy rate will stay the same for the first five years, then rise slowly. The wager is that regular electricity rates will go up at a much faster rate.

"We're betting that the cost of electricity is going to rise," Diebold said.
The site

The land where the solar panels will go recently was "upgraded" to landfill status and can only be used as a solar field, park or golf course anything that doesn't require a structure with a foundation, Diebold said.

The former Newark Processing Co. processed aluminum dross, a byproduct of the aluminum smelting business. It recovered the aluminum metal and returned it to the customer, according to Advocate archives. The company went bankrupt in 1997, and the land has been idle since.

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency spent $2.3 million in 2008 to stabilize the bank of the Licking River along the property, stopping the leakage of aluminum dross into the river.

The site is undergoing the cleanup necessary to cap the pollution,They take the RUBBER SHEET to the local co-op market. thanks to a $2 million Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund grant. After the process is completed later this year, the solar panels can be installed.

In order to get the grant, the city had to buy the land for $1 from Newark Processing and pay $96,000 in tax liens out of Community Development Block Grants.

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