An affiliate of North Charleston, S.C.-based The InterTech Group, Liberty Sun Energy will begin construction of the 3 MW projects near Walterboro in Colleton County, S.C. on 14 October.
The construction schedule calls for the plant to be completed by the end of the year. Once in operation, Santee Cooper, the state-run utility, will purchase the solar farm’s power in collaboration with Central Electric Power Cooperative and the state's electric cooperatives.
The InterTech Group, founded by the late Jerry Zucker, a scientific genius who was also the state’s first billionaire, has undertaken a number of smaller solar projects around the state, and is currently installing a PV system on the roof of the Carolina Ice Palace, a popular ice skating and hockey facility.
Speaking of the just announced solar farms, Grant Reeves, senior vice president of The InterTech Group, said, "We aim to demonstrate the economic viability of solar energy to the utilities and hope this project is the first of many in our state.
“Our South Carolina-based team, which includes partners Alder Energy Systems and Gregory Electric Company Inc., has developed a world class project that will demonstrate the many benefits of renewable energy,” Reeves continued. “We applaud Santee Cooper and the electrical cooperatives for their leadership and vision in renewable energy development. We are also grateful for the enthusiastic support and assistance we received from Walterboro and Colleton County.”
Solar power – and renewables in general have sometimes been a hot-button issue in the state, but interest in alternative sources of energy have been growing. Lonnie Carter, Santee Cooper’s president and CEO, said the utility has learned a lot in recent years about integrating solar power into its existing generation system.
“Liberty Sun brought us a solid proposal that will yield data we will use in shaping our generation portfolio going forward," Carter said.
Critical to the project coming to fruition was the support of the state’s electrical cooperatives.
"This project is a real-world, full-scale learning tool," said Ron Calcaterra, president and CEO of Central Electric Power Cooperative. "The question co-ops want to answer is how we can design a consumer-friendly product that makes solar power available to our members in a reliable, affordable and economically sustainable way. We expect to gain a tremendous amount of insight from this installation."
Among the public, the project is seen as significantly raising the bar for renewables in the state. When completed the new solar farm will even surpass the 2.6 MW rooftop solar system that competing utility SCE&G built on top of the Boeing aircraft manufacturing plant in North Charleston.
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