Work on the Onion River Photo voltaic Undertaking within the City of Holland is on monitor, however that is not one thing that must be attributed to the gentle climate to date this winter.
Tony Palese, a senior communications companion at Alliant Power, mentioned the gentle climate is each a boon and a bane.
Whereas the nice and cozy temperatures and no snow make it simpler to drive the piles, it additionally makes it tougher to get heavy tools out and in of the location within the muddy floor, he mentioned.
Palese mentioned that final month Alliant accomplished civil website work for the challenge – grading, creating roads and driveways and making ready laydown areas for development tools.
The corporate can be putting in underground energy cables, which make up about 40% of the whole energy cables for the challenge, he mentioned.
A lot of the remaining electrical work concerned stringing cables between the photo voltaic panels, he mentioned.
Crews additionally started putting in pilings, the metallic pillars that anchor the photo voltaic array buildings to the bottom, he mentioned.
Because the piles are positioned, crews will set up the racking system, which permits the photo voltaic panels to maneuver and comply with the solar, on high of them, Palese mentioned.
“It is quite a lot of repetitive work,” he mentioned, noting that there are extra piles and racks to be put in.
After that, he mentioned, work will start to put in the photo voltaic panels and inverters – most likely this spring – adopted by testing and commissioning.
“It is a huge milestone for our development group to place up the primary panel,” Palese mentioned.
Palese famous that as work started on the piles and racks, the corporate additionally put up a fence across the website.
The fence is supposed to maintain deer and different massive animals out, though smaller animals like rabbits can nonetheless get in, Palese mentioned.
The fence is about 8 toes excessive and consists of wood posts with 4-inch wire mesh.
“It isn’t like a series hyperlink fence,” Palese mentioned. “It is barely noticeable.”
Lastly, he added, the corporate will set up some vegetative screening, comparable to bushes, to assist soften the look.
Work has began once more on the substation that can join the photo voltaic array to the primary electrical grid, mentioned Palese. The substation, situated on Risseeuw Street west of Freeway GW, is subsequent to the present Holland substation, he mentioned.
Palese mentioned about 200 crews are engaged on the 1,000-acre website in Sheboygan County.
The Onion River Photo voltaic Undertaking, which broke floor final summer time, is a 150-megawatt photo voltaic farm that can comprise 387,000 photo voltaic panels when full.
Crews are anticipated to drive 70,000 to 80,000 piles to anchor these panels, the corporate mentioned.
The photo voltaic farm, which can produce sufficient electrical energy to energy 40,000 houses within the space and all the Midwest energy grid, is predicted to come back on-line by the top of this yr.
