LaGrange County REMC members can now take advantage of our Co-op Solar program!
The bright summer sun produces more than great days at the ballpark and bad tan lines. It also creates renewable energy, which our members can now take advantage of through our Co-op Solar program.
Officially launching this month, LaGrange County REMC is one in a group of a dozen cooperatives in the region to offer the clean energy initiative to our members and give them a new choice in the kind of power they support.
Cooperatives are working together with Wabash Valley Power, our wholesale energy provider, to deliver solar energy through arrays in Peru, Indiana; Paris, Illinois; and Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. This creates up to 1.7 megawatts of electricity, and by featuring arrays in different locations, Co-op Solar is able to more consistently produce energy when gloomy weather strikes one area or another.
The program is part of an ongoing effort to make alternative, clean energy accessible to more members. A 2016 survey found that more than two-thirds of our members were interested in such a venture.
In this way, signing up allows you to receive the renewable energy without investing in the costly hardware and maintenance of a personal array or panel. It’s shown that the per panel cost of a community array is much cheaper than it is for an individual homeowner who installs just several.
Each block is estimated to produce 43 kilowatt-hours each month — sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on weather conditions.
To become part of the program, participants sign up and prepay for a block of the array’s total output, which can equal up to 100 percent of their normal, average energy use. The blocks are purchased at a fixed price laid out in five-year increments for up to 15 years. The participating member then receives a credit each month based on the amount of electricity produced that billing cycle, divided by the number of blocks.
A member who decides to sell his/her home has the option to either sell the shares with the home, take them to another property on our co-op lines, or donate them to another eligible member within REMC territory.
Providing Co-op Solar is another way LaGrange County REMC is planning for the future while also continuing to deliver affordable, reliable and safe energy to our members.
Call LaGrange County REMC Energy Advisor Jake Taylor at 877-463-7165 for pricing and details or learn more by visiting PowerMoves.com.
