GREENWOOD, Ark. — The City of Greenwood will soon have a solar power plant that will power city buildings like city hall. They will become one of several cities in our area to go solar.
“We’re putting them here because it’s the right thing to do. That’s our saying here in Greenwood,” Mayor Doug Kinslow said.
Later this year, solar panels will be on 10 acres of land behind the City of Greenwood’s sewer treatment plant. Mayor Doug Kinslow says once the panels are up and running, they will power city buildings saving the city money.
“We are looking at $50,000 to $60,000 a year, over a million dollars in the next 30 years of savings to our citizens. This is to power all of our municipal facilities in Greenwood, so we are excited about that opportunity to save money and do the same thing all at the right time,” he said.
Greenwood partnered with Scenic Solar for the project. CEO Bill Halter says they’ve partnered with other cities in Arkansas like Clarksville. He says other than saving the city and taxpayers money; the solar panels will provide the city stability in their electricity prices because Scenic Solar will be selling the city electricity over a 28-year period.
“They know right now they what they will be paying for electricity years ahead of time. Contrast that with other folks who have frankly no idea what they will be paying next year or the year after that, and of course, we’ve seen very rapid rises in people’s electricity bills over time,” Halter said.
In February, the City of Alma flipped the switch on the first phase of their solar panel plant that powers the wastewater treatment plant. Mayor Jerry Martin says phase two of the project, which hasn’t started yet, will power city buildings. He says the panels haven’t been running long enough to give them any good data, but they are excited to see how well this green initiative works.
“When you can save money, especially when you work on a budget like ours that’s as tight as it is and as small as it is, you know, 20, 30, 50 thousand dollars a year in savings is a substantial amount of money,” Martin said.
Construction on the solar panels in Greenwood will start this fall, and they hope to have the panels up and running by the end of the year. Once phase one is complete, phase two will start, and those panels will be on city-owned property by the city lake.
