WINCHESTER, Ky. (March 8, 2017) – Member customers of Kentucky’s Touchstone Energy Cooperatives have an option to tap into renewable solar energy for their home or business without installing and maintaining solar panels themselves by licensing a piece of a planned solar power farm.
Touchstone Energy Cooperatives will develop a not-for-profit 60-acre solar farm in Winchester, Ky. For a one-time payment of $460 per panel, participating members will receive a 25-year license for one of the panels. That means they will get credit on their monthly power bill for the value of the energy generated by their share of the solar farm. And they can monitor panel performance online.
The 16 electric cooperatives in Touchstone Energy will install and maintain solar panels at the largest community solar farm in Kentucky. The licensing will take place through Cooperative Solar, which will credit participants on their monthly power bill for the energy produced by their share of the panels over the next 25 years. The solar farm is expected to begin generating electricity in late 2017.
The Kentucky Public Service Commission last week approved tariffs under which the transactions will take place.
To sign up or to learn more, go to www.CooperativeSolar.com.
Many co-op members are interested in going solar, but they face obstacles, such as:
• Covering their roof with solar panels;
• Maintaining solar panels themselves;
• Their home’s roof is shaded by trees or is not aligned for optimum sun exposure;
• They rent; or
• Deed restrictions prevent installation of panels.
Many businesses have sustainability goals that can be met with through Cooperative Solar.
Kentucky’s Touchstone Energy Cooperatives comprise 16 not-for-profit, member-owned electric cooperatives that serve more than 1 million Kentucky residents across 87 Kentucky counties. They include:
• Big Sandy RECC, Paintsville, Ky.
• Blue Grass Energy, Nicholasville, Ky.
• Clark Energy Cooperative, Winchester, Ky.
• Cumberland Valley Electric, Gray, Ky.
• Farmers RECC, Glasgow, Ky.
• Fleming-Mason Energy, Flemingsburg, Ky.
• Grayson RECC, Grayson, Ky.
• Inter-County Energy Cooperative, Danville, Ky.
• Jackson Energy Cooperative, McKee, Ky.
• Licking Valley RECC, West Liberty, Ky.
• Nolin RECC, Elizabethtown, Ky.
• Owen Electric Cooperative, Owenton, Ky.
• Salt River Electric, Bardstown, Ky.
• Shelby Energy Cooperative, Shelbyville, Ky.
• South Kentucky RECC, Somerset Ky.
• Taylor County RECC, Campbellsville, Ky.
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