$233K in federal funds going to Pickering Energy Solutions solar array

PARKERSBURG — A Wood County company is receiving a $233,250 federal grant and $150,000 loan guarantee to help fund its installation of a solar power array at West Virginia Wesleyan College.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development program is providing the money for the 500-kilowatt solar array, whose installation was completed at the private school in Buckhannon in December, said Chip Pickering, manager of Pickering Energy Solutions in Williamstown.

“It’s about to be energized,” he said.

The system is expected to produce about 13 percent of the power the college uses in a year, Pickering said.

“We will own and operate the system and then provide the power to them,” he said. “That power will be sold to the school, and that will offset the energy that they would be buying from MonPower.”

The local company is working with MonPower to get the 1,326-panel array tied into its power grid and tested. MonPower will bill the college for the electricity it uses, minus the amount of energy produced by the solar array.

The federal funding and guarantee of the loan “allows us to be able to offer a pricing package to West Virginia Wesleyan,” Pickering said. Getting the project up and running demonstrates the effectiveness of solar power as an option in an area that has not had the same opportunities to develop it, which will hopefully lead to its expansion, Pickering said.

“That’s what we’re trying to do is level that playing field,” he said.

The system has a useful life expectancy of 30 years and is expected to produce 863,400 kilowatt hours a year, enough electricity to power 78 average American homes in a year, according to a document provided by Pickering. Over the life of the system, $220,000 in energy savings are expected to be realized.

Use of the renewable energy will save the combustion of 460 tons of coal a year, which reduces carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere by 900 tons, the document from Pickering said. That’s equivalent to annual emissions from 177 American vehicles.

“It’s great to see West Virginia receive funding through USDA’s Rural Development program that will bolster our infrastructure, and make a positive impact in our communities,” U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said in a release announcing the award.

“Investing in West Virginia’s rural communities creates good-paying jobs and spurs economic growth in the region and across the state,” Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said in the release.

Both Capito and Manchin are members of the Senate Appropriations Committee and said they will continue to advocate for funding like this in West Virginia.