NEW UNDERWOOD, S.D. (KELO) — The Wild Springs Solar Farm has set up shop near New Underwood in western South Dakota.
It’s the largest solar farm in the state and is expected to give the community an economic boost.
When it comes to finding the ideal location, the open fields of New Underwood stood out to National Grid Renewables.
Not only was the company impressed with the amount of solar radiant available, there was also plenty of local support from the community and landowners.
“So Wild Springs Solar here covers roughly 1,200 acres of property. We have just shy of 350,000 panels on site and those are fed into 40 inverters,” Plant Operations Manager Jeremy Denton said.
New Underwood resident and restaurant owner Meri Jo Anderson, is looking forward to how this project will help the community.
“They donate a lot, these companies, to the school, the county gets money off the taxes, and they give money for a lot of things for the city too,” New Underwood resident Meri Jo Anderson said.
“Think there’s something like $29,500,000 of economic benefit over the 20 years of operation. Some of that is basically, I think there’s $12,000,000 or so that we’re planning as tax revenue, that of course impacts the local community,” National Grid Renewable COO Andy Cukurs said.
“Because the world is in need of energy all the time, our lives revolve around energy. I thought it was a good deal, and I’d rather see that than houses.” Anderson said.
Collecting solar power is a multiple step process from the solar farms to our homes.
“The solar panel gets photons from the sun that induces an electric current through the panels, which is fed through the wires out to the combiner boxes. That all gets collected into the inverters, the inverters take that DC power from the solar and convert it into AC which is what we all use in our houses,” Denton said.
When it comes to solar and renewable energy, it’s all about having a positive impact on the environment.
“Solar energy and renewable energy is pretty important because it helps offset our carbon footprint. This plant alone helps offset over 190,000 metric tons of CO2,” Denton said.
“I think a project of this size, eliminates the equivalent of 24,000 cars over the next 20 years of the project, something like this. So there is kind of that direct like feel good factor to it, but at the end of the day the economics are what really bare out,” Cukurs said.
National Grid Renewable has also pledged to donate more than a half million dollars to the New Underwood School District.
Wild Springs Solar farm aims to continue helping the community through the future.
