Ameren Invites Schools, Businesses and Nonprofits to Host Solar Projects
Date Posted: October 25, 2019
Posted In: Ideas,
From St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Ameren, the largest utility in the state, is hunting for solar panel space on rooftops, in parking lots and in the fields of Missouri schools, nonprofits and businesses.
The company’s Neighborhood Solar program unveiled this month marks a new approach in Ameren’s bid to expand renewable energy projects. The program asks local organizations — not residents — to lend it space. They don’t get paid, nor do they get breaks on their utility bills. Ameren touts instead that hosting a solar facility “can lend a positive brand and/or image to a location,” while promoting renewable energy.
The coal-dominated company has the highest rate of carbon emissions of any U.S. utility, according to a recent analysis. But it’s rolled out multiple solar energy initiatives over the past few months.
In August, a 1-megawatt solar facility began operation near Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, after hundreds of customers signed up to pay extra to support solar generation in Missouri. With additional demand spilling over to a waitlist of other customers, Ameren said it will build more of the facilities.
And in September, the company filed plans to build three solar panel and battery storage facilities in rural communities around the state, which — at 10 megawatts apiece — would be capable of meeting electricity demand for roughly 10,000 customers, combined.
The utility has a goal to add 100 megawatts of solar by 2027 and is also spending $1.2 billion to develop two Missouri wind farms — part of an overall aim to reduce its carbon emissions 80% by 2050, compared to 2005 levels.
“We continue to learn from our customers’ interest in clean and renewable energy,” said Matt Forck, the company’s vice president of community, economic development and energy solutions. “Neighborhood Solar is going to be another example of that.”