Baldwin County’s first solar array – FOX10 News

It’s a first for Baldwin County. An array of 160 solar panels have been installed in Foley, just off Highway 59. It’s a very visible project that will bring renewable energy to South Alabama. 

Solar power growth exploded by 40{0b7da518931e2dc7f5435818fa9adcc81ac764ac1dff918ce2cdfc05099e9974} in the US from 2016 to 2017, but our area has been lagging behind that renewable revolution. That is beginning to change though with a newly installed field of solar panels just off Highway 59 in Foley.

Miles McDaniel with Riviera Utilities told us, “We’ve got four rows of panels and there are 160 panels. They’re fixated so they’re facing south. They’re not going to move during the day. They’re go big to stay in the current position they’re in now.”

Pilot project

McDaniel said the solar panels were installed by the Alabama Municipal Electric Authority as a test project.

“We’re going to have a system so we can see what kind of output we’re generating throughout the day whenever it’s overcast or it’s a beautiful day like today, we’ll be able to see the different output we get from this facility,” McDaniel told us.

First power in Baldwin County

The power these panels put out, won’t be huge, but it’s significant, since there are no power plants in Baldwin county. These panels will be the first local facility to generate power.

“On a very beautiful day they can have a maximum output of 50kw,” McDaniel said. “50kw is going to be providing power to roughly 6 to 8 houses.”

The solar panels are physically installed now, but they’re not hooked up. They hope to fully have the panels on the grid by the end of August or early September. When that power goes on the grid it will be a drop in the bucket of the overall power, but every journey starts with that first step. 

No impact on power bill

Riviera Utilities says the solar panel facility is too small to impact power bills one way or the other.