Environmental Leader

Touted as one of the largest solar farms on the East Coast to treat and transport water, a 1.1-megawatt (MW) solar installation project underway at Aqua Pennsylvania Inc. is expected to save the water and wastewater utility $77,000 annually on its energy bill.

The Ingram’s Mill Farm project, in partnership with Conergy and Sanyo, will produce 1,300,500 kWh of peak-time energy annually for the treatment and transportation of water for hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses throughout Southeastern Pennsylvania. The project will be completed as early as the end of 2010.

The solar farm will also reduce congestion on the PJM grid, a regional transmission organization, resulting in fewer line losses and congestion charges. The environmental savings from the Conergy-Sanyo solar system will translate into the planting of 223 acres of trees, eliminating the pollutants from driving 35 million car miles and offsetting the burning of 66,000 barrels of oil.

The project is partially  financed by a $1-million grant from the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority, which is funded in part with federal stimulus dollars. Ingram’s Mill Farm is expected to create 20 permanent full-time jobs and 120 temporary, full-time jobs.

The Ingram’s Mill project was one of 25 projects which were collectively awarded $20.7 million to produce or save 2.2 billion kilowatt hours of electricity over their lifetimes.