A local solar manufacturer delivered 403 new solar panels Wednesday to a new public recreation center under construction in Upper Arlington.
These are the first solar panels installed on an Upper Arlington city building — and the first non-utility project on which the solar manufacturer Illuminate USA of Pataskala has worked.
The solar panels cost $540,000 to install. That is part of the $85 million price tag for the Bob Crane Community Center, which is still on track to open next spring, Assistant City Manager Jackie Thiel said in an interview with The Dispatch.
Between the energy cost savings and tax credits for installing solar panels, the city estimates the panels will pay for themselves within 10 years.
Why this is happening now
Tax breaks from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act are partly why buying the panels makes financial sense for the city.
The IRA, which was not supported by any Republicans in Congress, includes tax credits for both solar manufacturers and purchasers of solar panels.
Illuminate USA started production in February at a 1.1 million-square-foot facility in Pataskala. The company is a joint venture between American renewable energy company Invenergy and LONGi, a Chinese solar panel manufacturer.
Eric Heis, a spokesperson for Illuminate USA, said the company is not receiving any credits from the IRA by opening the facility, but it will receive tax credits based on production.
Heis said most of the Ohio-made panels will likely be installed on utility-scale projects.
The 403 panels delivered Wednesday morning to Upper Arlington are marginal compared to other recent projects for Illuminate USA. For example, Heis said about 260,000 panels are going to a new utility-scale solar farm in Hardin County, east of Lima.
The community center under construction in Upper Arlington is the first city building with new solar panels, but other solar panels could be installed in the future.
“There’s no other plans to add them, but it’s something that we’re always looking at, especially as grant funding is available and we’re doing any renovations to roofs,” Thiel said.
Visitors to the center will be able to learn about the “real-time energy savings” from the panels on a monitor in the lobby, according to an Upper Arlington news release.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Upper Arlington installs Pataskala-made solar panels on new rec center
