for immediate release study of ohio’s 25 largest solar ...€¦ · ohio businesses are the...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Bill Spratley

Executive Director

Green Energy Ohio

(614) 985-6131

[email protected]

www.GreenEnergyOhio.org

Green Energy Ohio is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting environmentally and economically sustainable energy policies and practices in Ohio.

GEO is the Ohio Chapter of the American Solar Energy Society.

Study of Ohio’s 25 Largest Solar Arrays &

Ohio’s Second Big Solar Business & Community Solar Conference

COLUMBUS, OH (August 16, 2015). Green Energy Ohio (GEO) released the second study of the current 25

largest grid-tied solar arrays and a first-ever county-by-county survey of solar PV installations. This report

was prepared as GEO coordinates Ohio’s second statewide seminar on large solar arrays on August 25, 2016

in Bowling Green, OH.

Emily Sautter, GEO Wind Program Manager, researched key facts about the 25 largest solar photovoltaic (PV)

installations in the state using data on each of the systems obtained from the Public Utilities Commission of

Ohio (PUCO) as of May 30, 2016 and contacts involved in the projects.

Key findings of the GEO solar PV analysis released on-line today in the GEO News Magazine show:

The top 25 systems represent 74.4 MW of the 132.5 MW, approximately 56% of the total installed

solar PV in Ohio

These 25 solar PV systems avoid an estimated 75,000 metric tons of CO2 annually

The majority of the 25 largest solar PV installations are located in Northwest Ohio (16) followed by

Southwest Ohio (5), Northeast Ohio (2), and Central Ohio (2)

Sites for the ground-mount and rooftop applications include Ohio airports, factories, municipal and

investor-owned utilities, commercial buildings, zoos, schools, universities, and other locations

There is at least one solar PV installation in 87 of Ohio’s 88 counties - there are no PV systems listed

in the PUCO database for Noble County

The majority of the solar PV capacity in the state is comprised of relatively few, large systems; there

are 133 systems (6.8% of the sate total) rated at 100 kW and above which make up 108.2 MW of the

state total of 132.5 MW or 81.7% of the capacity

See more findings and figures from GEO’s 2016 solar PV analysis on the following pages. The full study

appears on pages 18-23 of the summer edition of the Green Energy Ohio News Magazine at:

http://www.greenenergyoh.org/current-geo-news-magazine/. See the first-ever study of Ohio’s 25 largest

solar arrays in GEO’s Winter 2015 magazine at: http://bit.ly/1OidsJE.

GEO’s second statewide seminar on large solar arrays is titled Bowling Green Conference: Building Big

Solar Across Ohio. The event is a business-to-business conference featuring presentations from 21 expert

speakers, including discussion of the Bowling Green 20 MW solar field that is under construction. “This is the

most comprehensive look at solar energy across Ohio ever presented - showing the statewide extent of

currently operating solar energy systems and the growing list of solar installs expected in coming years,” said

Bill Spratley, GEO Executive Director.

Study Findings Follow:

http://www.greenenergyoh.org/current-geo-news-magazine/

http://bit.ly/1OidsJE

http://www.greenenergyoh.org/bowling-green-conference-building-big-solar-across-ohio/

http://www.greenenergyoh.org/bowling-green-conference-building-big-solar-across-ohio/



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Ohio's 25 Largest Solar Photovoltaic Installations by Emily Sautter, Wind Program Manager, GEO

To supplement GEO’s second statewide seminar on large solar arrays and discussion of community solar

policies on August 25, 2016, and to update the results of a similar study completed in May of 2015, GEO

researched and identified the 25 largest solar photovoltaic (PV) installations in the state. This study contains

data on each of the systems gathered from the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio as of May 30, 2016.

The top 25 systems represent 74.4 MW of the 132.5 MW, or about 56% of the total solar PV capacity

installed across Ohio

The majority of the 25 largest solar PV installations are located in Northwest Ohio (16) followed by

Southwest Ohio (5), Northeast Ohio (2), and Central Ohio (2)

Sites for the ground-mount and rooftop applications include Ohio airports, factories, municipal and

investor-owned utilities, commercial buildings, zoos, schools, universities, and other locations

The large solar arrays added clean energy capacity to Ohio’s electric grid with 45.9 MW to four

investor-owned utilities and 28.4 MW to nine municipal public power utilities

While 19 of the 25 large solar arrays are power purchase agreements (PPA) financed by third party

Investors, four are privately owned and two are utility owned

Ohio businesses are the predominant developers and installers of the top 25 installations

One Ohio solar panel manufacturer (First Solar) and one Ohio manufacturer of inverters (Nextronex)

provided products to the largest percentage of projects on the top 25 list, with a total of 16 solar panel

manufacturers and 11 inverter makers listed

Every day these 25 big solar systems make substantial carbon reductions by adding clean power into Ohio’s

power grid and offsetting dirty fossil fueled generation. GEO estimates the carbon dioxide avoided by these

big solar arrays (74.4 MW) is as much as 75,000 metric tons of CO2 avoided annually.

Total Installed Solar PV in Ohio by Regions & Counties

As of May 30, 2016, the PUCO database listed 1,961 solar PV installations, an increase of 23.3% from the

2015 data. The total capacity of PV installations as of May 2016 is 132.480 MW, an increase of 9.7% from

the 2015 data.

There is at least one solar PV installation in each of 87 of Ohio’s 88 counties - there are no PV systems

listed in the PUCO database for Noble County

The highest number of PV installations was found to be the Southwest at 605 installations, while the

region boasting the largest capacity of PV installations was the Northwest, with 64.013 MW

The top five counties, in terms of number of PV installations are Hamilton - 230, Franklin - 166,

Cuyahoga - 137, Athens - 109, and Butler – 72

The top five counties, in terms of capacity are Wyandot - 14.565 MW, Henry - 14.061 MW, Lucas -

10.002 MW, Hamilton - 8.688 MW, and Auglaize – 7.347 MW

The majority of the solar PV capacity in the state is comprised of relatively few, large systems; there

are 133 systems (6.8% of the state total) rated at 100 kW and above which make up 108.196 MW of

the state total of 132.480 MW or 81.7% of the capacity

The 1,961 installed solar PV systems in Ohio avoid an estimated 133,000 metric tons of CO2 annually

Following is a two page table ranking the 25 solar arrays, an Ohio map showing their locations, and

various figures showing the county distribution of PV arrays by number and capacity.



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Site Name Date On-line County Rated

Capacity (MW**)

Panel Mfr.

1 Wyandot Solar Farm Oct-09 Wyandot 12.00 First Solar

2 BNB Napoleon Solar (Campbell Soup Co.) Dec-11 Henry 9.79 SunPower

3 Celina Solar Project Dec-12 Mercer 5.00 Phono Solar & Q-

Cells

4 Village of Minster Dec-15 Auglaize 4.31 Canadian Solar

5 AMP Napoleon Solar Facility Aug-12 Henry 4.20 Isofoton

6 City of Clyde Jun-16 Sandusky 3.66 Hanwha Q Cells

7 Wapakoneta Jul-13 Auglaize 3.01 Trina & ReneSola

8 Owens Corning Headquarters Solar Oct-15 Lucas 2.43 Yingli Solar

9 First Solar Perrysburg Array Sept-10* Wood 2.42 First Solar

10 Oberlin Spear Point Solar One (Oberlin College)

Nov-12 Lorain 2.27 Suntech

11 Staples - London, OH Jan-13* Madison 2.23 Solarfun

12 GM Lordstown Solar Array Jan-15 Trumbull 2.19 ReneSola

13 Cedarville University Solar Array May-13* Greene 2.15 REC

14 Anthony Wayne Solar (Toledo Zoo) Dec-13 Lucas 2.10 Calyxo

15 Bryan Municipal Utilities Feb-12 Williams 2.06 First Solar

16 Village of Carey Dec-14 Wyandot 2.00 ReneSola

17 Oak Harbor Jun-13 Ottawa 1.88 Trina & ReneSola

18 Sol Trans - GM Powertrain PV Solar Mar-12 Lucas 1.78 First Solar

19 Springfield Solar (Assurant Specialty Property)

Nov-12 Clark 1.77 Hanwha & Motech

20 Melink Solar Canopy at the Cincinnati Zoo May-11* Hamilton 1.56 SolarWorld

21 Toledo Air National Guard Base Oct-08 Lucas 1.20 First Solar

22 The Yankee Station Solar Generating Facility (Dayton Power &Light)

Mar-10 Montgomery 1.13 Sharp

23 University of Toledo Scott Park Campus PV Facility

Jan-10 Lucas 1.12 First Solar

24 West Jefferson Schools Dec-12 Madison 1.04 ReneSola

25 IKEA US East, LLC #175 Dec-11 Butler 1.03 REC

PPA – Power Purchase Agreement MW – Megawatt AMP – American Renewable Power, Inc. N/A – Information not available



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Inverter Mfr. Developer Financing Installer Utility Service

Territory

SMA America juwi solar Inc. Privately Owned

Vaughn Industries AEP Ohio

SMA America SunPower Corp. 3rd Party PPA Vaughn Industries Toledo Edison

GE SolarVision 3rd Party PPA Chapel-Romanoff Electric City of Celina

Ingeteam American Renewable

Energy 3rd Party PPA American Renewable Energy Village of Minster

Nextronex AMP, Inc. Utility Owned Solar by Soldiers/Tipping Point

Renewable Energy City of Napoleon

LTI AEP OnSite Partners 3rd Party PPA Advanced Distributed

Generation City of Clyde

Nextronex Solar Planet 3rd Party PPA Vaughn Industries Village of Wapakoneta

SMA America Constellation 3rd Party PPA GEM Energy Toledo Edison

N/A GEM Energy Privately Owned

GEM Energy Toledo Edison

Advanced Energy Spear Point Energy 3rd Party PPA Vaughn Industries Oberlin Municipal Light

& Power System

N/A SunEdison 3rd Party PPA Reddy Electric Co. Ohio Edison

Advanced Energy Solscient Energy 3rd Party PPA Joe Dickey Electric, J Ranck Ohio Edison

Solectria Renewables

Melink Corp. 3rd Party PPA TMI Electric, RBI, Yellow

Springs Renewable Energy Dayton Power & Light

Nextronex GEM Energy 3rd Party PPA GEM Energy Toledo Edison

Nextronex GEM Energy 3rd Party PPA GEM Energy City of Bryan

Power-One Solar Planet 3rd Party PPA Vaughn Industries Village of Carey

Nextronex Solar Planet 3rd Party PPA Lake Erie Electric Oak Harbor Public

Power

Satcon, Advanced Energy

Solscient Energy 3rd Party PPA Romanoff Electric Company Toledo Edison

Satcon Tangent Energy

Solutions 3rd Party PPA Third Sun Solar Ohio Edison

Satcon Melink Corp. 3rd Party PPA B&J Electric, RBI (ProtekPark),

HGC Construction Duke Energy

Nextronex Advanced Distributed

Generation Privately Owned

Advanced Distributed Generation

Toledo Edison

Xantrex Dayton Power & Light Utility Owned Ameridian Dayton Power & Light

PV Powered Plug Smart,

Constellation Solar II 3rd Party PPA

Advanced Distributed Generation

Toledo Edison

Nextronex Solar Planet 3rd Party PPA Settle Muter Electric AEP Ohio

N/A REC Solar Privately Owned

REC Solar Duke Energy

*Start date represents the date that the system was approved as a Renewable Energy Resource Generating Facility by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) **Megawatt values are rounded to the nearest hundredth of a megawatt and represent the DC rating of the system



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Map of Ohio’s 25 Largest Solar Photovoltaic Arrays

Total Installed Solar PV in Ohio by Region



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Map of Five Ohio Regions in Solar PV Analysis

for immediate release study of ohio’s 25 largest solar ...€¦ · ohio businesses are the...

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