TERRE HAUTE —
While new solar array panels are expected to provide cost savings, to members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 725, the panels represent a training tool for the future of solar markets.
The electrical union early this year was awarded a $42,580 competitive grant administered by the Indiana Office of Energy Development. The 50 percent matching grant, funded through the U.S. Department of Energy’s State Energy Program, has allowed the purchase of 60 solar panels, capable of generating 14,000 watts of electricity.
One-third of the panels can be seen by drivers along Indiana 46, near Hulman Street, on the east side of Terre Haute. Those panels produce about 4,666 watts of electricity and are being used to power a large electrical sign for the union.
“We will do net metering with Duke Energy, through an interconnection agreement, so whenever we are generating more power than we are utilizing, we get a credit” on the facility’s total electrical bill, said R. Todd Thacker, business manager for Local 725.
“During the day, when producing electricity, the sign uses about 1,500 watts, as only the marquee is lighted. At night, we have the sign lit up inside and use about 4,000 to 5,000 watts,” Thacker said. “We get credit during the day and are buying power during the night.”
Cost savings have not yet been determined, Thacker said, as the system does not go online until the end of this month. The system must be in operation by May 31, according to the grant agreement, Thacker said, adding that the union worked with the National Photovoltaic Construction Partnership to obtain the state grant.
The union expects to get its investment back within seven or eight years, based on initial credit savings, he said.
“We are estimating this will take care of 25 percent of our annual [electrical] usage. We get two electric bills, one for the sign and one for the building,” Thacker said.
Installation of the panels started Monday and is to continue today at the union’s 5,000-square-foot, all-electric main office building at 5675 E. Hulman Dr. The remaining two-thirds of the solar panels are to be placed on the south side of the main building, producing about 9,334 watts.
The biggest reason the union decided to use solar panels, Thacker said, “is we are wanting to promote the industry. We also want to train our people. We are not as concerned about the payback as much as we much as we are in the training opportunity and marketing.”
“I think going green is something everyone would like to do, but don’t know how to do it, so we are trying to show a path to do that,” Thacker said. “We are trying to be progressive.”
The union plans to post daily updates of its power usage on its Web site, www.ibew725.org, to publicly show how much power is being generated from its solar panels, Thacker said.
Currently, it costs about 20 cents to produce a kilowatt of electricity from solar power, versus 8 to 9 cents per kilowatt from coal, Thacker said. However, the more that solar panels are used nationwide and mass-produced, the more the cost of solar components and solar power will be lowered, Thacker said.
The solar panels will be manually adjusted twice a year to track the sun, slanting at a 37-degree angle in the summer and a 41-degree angle in the winter, Thacker said. In addition, the panels can be taken down and reinstalled to aid in the training of electricians and union apprentices.
The panels are manufactured by Sharp Corp. in Memphis, Tenn., and are “supposed to withstand a 110-mile-per-hour wind and half-inch hail at 50 miles per hour. We have a 20-year guarantee with the solar panels,” Thacker said.
Thacker said he would next like to install solar panels on the union’s 22,000-square-foot training building at Ninth and Ohio streets in Terre Haute and hopes to obtain a grant to do that. That training facility, which currently has 114 apprentices, is jointly owned with the National Electrical Contractors Association, Thacker added.
Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com.
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