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Posted in News Releases, Solar   April 1, 2016

Benton PUD Builds the First Community Solar Project in Prosser

Ribbon-cutting ceremony scheduled for 9:00 a.m., April 26, 2016
 
Benton PUD will have a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its community solar project located at the Prosser Benton PUD facility. The Old Inland Empire Community Solar project is Benton PUD’s second community solar project and the first one to be built in Prosser.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place at 9:00 a.m., Tuesday, April 26 at the project site at the intersection of Old Inland Empire Highway and North Gap Road in Prosser, WA. After a short presentation, tours will be available.

The cost of the project, $135,575, is funded entirely by customer participation. Benton PUD commissioned the project to meet the growing interest of customers who wanted to invest in solar for environmental reasons and for the financial incentives currently being offered by the state.

The project’s size is 24.6 kilowatts with 88 solar panels manufactured by Itek Energy in Bellingham, WA and mounted in an array. The size of the project was limited to meet the state incentive requirements. The project is expected to generate enough electricity to meet the needs of two average homes on an annual basis.

Benton PUD’s first solar project generated 429 customer requests for 5,840 units exceeding the 1,500 units available. A random drawing of the interested customers was held and units were sold to 112 customers on the list in the order that they were drawn. The units for the Prosser community solar were offered to customers remaining on the list in the order determined by the random drawing. The Prosser project has 42 participants.


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