FREMONT, Ohio — A plan two years in the making at Terra State Community College is now coming together to make a big change for the school over the next 3 decades.
The solar panels going up represent the last construction of a $6.6 million deferred maintenance project at Terra State Community College.
The solar field will cost about $3.5 million and will generate 1.78 megawatts of power, which Terra State officials said should save the community college about $200,000 a year.
"On an annual basis, we're looking at about a 70% drop off or reduction of our electric consumption," Duane Kimmet, facility operations director at Terra State Community College, said.
The solar panels come from First Solar and will be recyclable if they ever need to be replaced.
Every panel is installed a minimum of 6 feet off the ground to utilize a space that Terra State would not have been able to use otherwise.
"It is a flood plain by definition," Wadsworth Solutions project engineer Sean Weber said. "Now, it does not overly flood, but it is enough so that the campus would not be able to utilize it for other construction-related projects."
Terra State took out a 30-year bond to pay for all of the deferred maintenance projects.
"Roofs projects, water, cooling tower projects. Different things like that that we could take care of in one fell swoop," Terra State president Ron Schumacher said. "Otherwise, it would have taken us probably 10 biennial budgets to do the things we needed to do on campus."
It is believed after this solar field goes live in the summer, it will pay for itself in 15 years.
"It really gets us into a position in the present for securing the future of the college down the road," Schumacher said
Once the construction of the larger solar field is complete, a smaller, functioning solar field will be installed within the courtyard between the main campus building with the expectation that it will be implemented into workforce development classes for students.