New Program Will Let Customers Help Ameren Build Solar Power
Date Posted: May 2, 2016
Posted In: Organizations,
From St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Environmentally minded customers could soon have the chance to help Ameren Missouri develop more solar power.
Under a new program proposed by the St. Louis-based utility this week, residential customers can pay a few bucks more per month to help finance a new solar plant. A second program would seek commercial customers who would allow Ameren to install solar panels on rooftops and open space.
Customers would have to want to support solar power enough to pay a little extra or donate their space to the utility; Ameren isn’t planning any incentives to lure participants, but it is pledging to spend up to $13.5 million on the programs.
“We’ve had several large commercial customers that have approached us and have said, ‘Hey, we are definitely interested in helping to support sustainability throughout the region,’” said Bill Barbieri, Ameren Missouri’s director of renewable strategy, policy and generation.
While the overall amount of solar generation developed under the programs isn’t huge — up to about 6 megawatts — the three-year pilots are designed to help the utility learn how best to integrate small-scale solar into the grid. Expanded solar development could come later.