The bright summer sun produces more than great days at the ball park and bad tan lines. It also creates renewable energy, which our members can take advantage of through our Co-op Solar program.

Launched in January, Noble REMC became one in a group of a dozen cooperatives throughout the state 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, which can create up to 1.7 megawatts of electricity. By featuring arrays in different locations, Co-op Solar will be able to more consistently produce energy when gloomy weather strikes one area or another.

In an effort to make solar energy accessible to more members, the program 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 that can equal up to 100 percent of their normal, average energy use. They then receive a credit each month based on the amount of electricity produced that billing cycle, divided by the number of blocks.

It’s another way Noble REMC strives to efficiently deliver affordable, reliable and safe energy to our consumer-members.

Call Noble REMC Energy Advisor Brian Hawk at 800-933-7362 for pricing and details or learn more by visiting PowerMoves.com.