TRAVERSE CITY — Here comes the sun, customers of Traverse City Light & Power.
The city-owned utility will build a $500,000 community solar project next year as it continues to amp up use of renewable-energy sources.
The 50-kilowatt system will include up to 120 solar panels installed at its complex on Hastings Street, and officials hope the system generates power by next fall.
"We think solar has some good attributes for our distribution system," Light & Power Director Ed Rice said.
The utility already buys renewable power from a wind farm in Missaukee County owned by Traverse City businessman Martin Lagina. It's also lined up landfill gas purchases and soon will produce more than 10 percent of its power from renewable sources.
The solar project will generate about a half-percent of Light & Power's overall energy needs.
"It's not what we call base-load generation," Rice said. "But every little bit helps when we get into the renewables."
The project will be financed in part by offering utility customers a "green-rate" surcharge on electric bills, similar to how the utility subsidized its wind generator along M-72 west of Traverse City.
Rice said officials are working on details of how to help underwrite the system, but they are confident ratepayers will step up to support green power efforts.
"We think it will sell with the community," Rice said.
The utility estimates solar cells will generate electricity around 15 to 18 percent of the time, factoring in night hours and cloudy days, particularly considering typically overcast winter months.
"We think this community solar is going to give us a good start," Rice said. "We want to make sure we do this right."
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Related Photos
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Ed Rice, executive director at Traverse City Light & Power. Record-Eagle/Keith King
Light & Power to build solar project
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Man charged with more crimes
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Housing project 'moving forward'
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Elk Lake boat launch closed for repairs
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TC Central, West on another 'best' list
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Traverse City man faces theft charge
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Video: 'Taps' at Memorial Day service at Oakwood Cemetery
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A Memorial Day ceremony included a recitation of the Gettysburg Address, a rifle salute, the playing of "Taps" and a speech from Grand Traverse County Board of Commissioners Chairman Larry Inman.
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Get to work without using your car
- Monday, May 28, 2012
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City to discontinue spring cleanup
City crews will stop collecting residents' clutter each spring.
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Terry Wooten: WWII soldier's story told in poems
Jack Miller, a survivor of the Bataan Death March and a POW during World War II, won't be in any Memorial Day parades today.
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Remembering the fallen veterans
Below is a list of military veterans from the region who died during the past year (May 28, 2011, through May 25, 2012).
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Memorial Day events
A roundup of Memorial Day-related events in northern Michigan:
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Travel season begins
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Restored cemetery to be honored on Memorial Day
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