The Gresham Outlook reports that Gresham’s Wastewater Treatment Center is installing the largest ground mounted solar facility in the state, at no cost to ratepayers. REC Solar, Inc. is installing the system for SunEdison, which will own, operate and monitor the solar facility.
Seventy percent of the power used by Gresham’s wastewater facility is already considered sustainable — 50 percent is produced on site by converting methane gas into energy and another 20 percent is from wind power purchased from Portland General Electric.
The solar panels will be fully installed by the end of the year. They’re expected to generate on average 8 percent of the plant’s annual electricity usage, or about 400,000 kWh (kilowatt hours). Put another way, that’s enough to power about 42 average-sized homes for a year, Wright said.
[...] over the purchasing agreement’s 20 years, the cost savings to the city is estimated at $102,500, Wright said.That’s because instead of paying PGE 9-10 cents per kWh for clean wind energy, or 8 cents per hour for plain old electricity, the plant can buy electricity generated from the solar panels for 6 cents per kWh.
The treatment center is also exploring other possibilities for making the center energy neutral.
Other energy generating ideas include the erection of wind turbines at the wastewater treatment plant, installation of a hydro turbine to harness power from the plant’s outflow into the Columbia River and conversion of grease waste from fast food establishments into methane gas.
