Greentech Lead America: Community Energy Solar has closed
financing and commenced construction of its 6 MW Keystone Solar Project in
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Ben Franklin Technology Partnership, the
Sustainable Energy Fund and the State of Pennsylvania provided financing and
funding for the solar project.
Canadian
Solar provided about 20,000 of its 290 watt modules for the project.
The modules are installed on fixed tilt, ground-mounted aluminum racking
provided by Schletter. The plant will be interconnected to the PPL Electric
grid at 12 kilovolts with AE inverters and platforms.
Community Energy worked closely with the fabled Lancaster
County farming community and township officials in designing the project to
support both farmland preservation and agricultural soil restoration.
The solar panels are being installed on driven posts
without concrete to avoid soil disturbance, such that the site will be
maintained with selected cover vegetation to preserve and improve organic soil
content.
The project is expected to generate approximately 7.5
million kilowatt hours annually. The clean electricity generated by the project
will be purchased by Exelon under a fifteen-year power purchase agreement.
groSolar, a commercial solar contractor, will construct
the plant, the construction is scheduled to complete by this fall. The annual
environmental benefit equals that of about 3,000 zero-emission passenger
vehicles or 285,000 newly planted trees growing for ten years.