The city of South Haven will participate in the South Haven Affordable Solar, LLC distributed project.
At the city’s last regular council meeting, the council approved a Power Purchase Agreement that will directly connect and generate energy for the city’s electric distribution system for customer use.
Public Works Director Dana Burd tells us that this project began in 2023, and the company is now ready to proceed.
“We’re required to meet certain renewable energy requirements for the power that the customers use on our utility,” Burd says. “That’s a state of Michigan requirement, so that’s one way that this will benefit the customers. It will help us secure that renewable energy contribution that we have to show the state for state law to comply with that. It also helps us with our capacity and transmission costs.”
The agreement, which includes a 25-year contract, includes the construction of a 4.5 megawatt solar energy facility to be built in South Haven Township, located at the intersection of 73rd St and Highway M43.
“The solar panels generate energy throughout the year,” Burd says. “Even on cloudy days, there’s a constant generation of some level of electricity that we would be purchasing and having our customers then use. So on sunnier days, it will generate more energy, but even on cloudy days in the middle of winter, it will still generate energy.”
Modules are expected to be delivered by this summer, with the project officially launching shortly after. It is estimated that it will produce up to 8,110.13 MWh (megawatt-hours) in the first year of the contract.
