Solar Power Cells, Hot Water, Energy, Collectors

Power of the people: Solar farm helps individual investors

01.01.70

Approaching vehicles slow as drivers take a closer look at what's growing in the 14-acre field next to Dan Osborn's wholesale nursery business.

Sure, last year's field of sunflowers was impressive enough.

Now, in the dead of winter, all that's left is nearly 100 solar tracking towers that are harvesting enough energy to power about 125 homes for a year.

The brainchild of Convergence Energy of Lake Geneva, the networked solar farm has taken shape in the last couple of years as a green-power investment for people who want to invest in solar energy but, for one reason or another, can't at their home or business.

The farm, which is now complete, is a series of 33 individual, limited liability companies. Each totals about 80 solar panels on three tracking towers that rotate to follow the sun from east to west. That generates about 30 percent more power than a more conventional system affixed atop a roof.

Source: Walworth County Today