Ameren to open its largest solar energy facility in March

NEW FLORENCE, Mo. — Panels are getting set in place for Ameren and their second solar facility in New Florence, Missouri. The success of the Lambert Solar Field and customer demand is making the March completion of this facility a reality.

“This is our Montgomery County Community Solar Center right next to New Florence off of I-70, and it will eventually be Ameren Missouri’s largest solar facility,” said Chad Raley, the manager of renewal and technology business development for Ameren. “It’s going to cover about 30 acres, or maybe 23 football fields, and by the end of it we’ll have installed more than 12,000 solar panels.”

Ameren has a net-zero carbon emissions goal by 2050, reducing carbon emissions 50% by 2030 and 85% by 2040, based on the 2005 level

Ameren said its 2017 emissions reduction pledge is consistent with the objectives of the Paris Agreement and limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

“So, the panels are pretty large and somewhere between three feet by six feet or four beds by eight feet and in a long line of panels,” says Raley. “They’re on a tracker system and will start East in the morning and follow the sun throughout the day which really increases the amount of clean energy we can generate at this site in particular.”

The solar facility is expected to be up and running by late March.