Today, our Pirkey Environmental Park has six panels which provide 16 amps. Inside a battery room nearby, a 110 plug in powered by the solar panels feeds a small heater as a start to what’s to come.
“Environmental Coordinator Sam McDonald and I have been working toward solar for a couple years now,” said Pirkey Plant’s Environmental & Lab Supervisor Ron Franklin. “We’re trying to develop how to demonstrate renewables and how the company is incorporating solar into the generation fleet. It’s for the development of community knowledge, and we plan to incorporate that into our plant tours, especially since we always end up at the park for lunch. We’ll show [tour guests] the renewables and explain other ways to get electricity.”
Future plans include 100 amp solar panels to supply power for the park’s bathrooms, pavilion fans, and water heaters for the campers’ showers. The panels also will supply power to low LED lighting throughout the park for safety.
Visitors, including Scouts, will take part in solar cooking demonstrations with solar ovens that use the power supplied by the panels.
