FAIRMONT, W.Va.– The second utility-scale solar site in West Virginia has been completed by Mon Power and Potomac Edison, subsidiaries of FirstEnergy Corp.
The second solar site was finished less than a year after their first solar site at Fort Martin Power Station in Maidsville.
At the Rivesville site in Marion County there are nearly 14,000 solar panels that are now producing up to 5.5 megawatts of clean, renewable power, which will help the county meet the state’s electricity needs. And according to the Solar Energy Industries Association one megawatt of solar energy powers a national average of 173 homes.
The new site is situated on approximately 27 acres of company-owned property along Morgan Ridge Road. The site had been unused since the Rivesville Power Station was deactivated in 2012. For construction Mon Power and Potomac Edison used 63 local union workers to build at the site. The solar panels, racking system and supporting electrical equipment were all made in the United States.
The companies’ West Virginia solar program supports a 2020 bill that was passed by the West Virginia Legislature that allows electric companies to own and operate up to 200 megawatts of solar generation facilities to help meet the state’s electricity needs. This new addition of new renewable generation encourages economic development in West Virginia because a growing number of companies require that a portion of the electricity they purchase be generated by renewable sources.
Dan Rossero, Vice President of FirstEnergy’s West Virginia Generation said, “Our solar projects create construction jobs and support economic growth by helping West Virginia recruit and retain employers. We are pleased to reach another important milestone in our solar program and are excited about the interest we continue to receive from subscribers.”
The two companies, all together, are developing five solar projects that will total 50 megawatts of renewable solar generation, with the first phase of 200 megawatts being developed over time. While they finished their first solar site in January, this fall they began construction on a third site in Berkeley County.
When all of the five projects are done, the sites will create more than 87,000 solar renewable energy credits available for purchase by customers who support renewable energy in West Virginia. SRECs are certificates that represent the environmental attributes of solar power and prove solar energy was generated on the purchasers’ behalf.
Since the start of the solar program, the companies have already enrolled residential customers as well as large commercial and institutional customers, including the National Energy Technology Laboratory in Morgantown and the town of Harpers Ferry. To purchase SRECs through the program it is four cents per kilowatt hour in addition to normal rates. To find out more about the solar program, Mon Power and Potomac Edison customers in West Virginia can visit firstenergycorp.com/WVsolar