Santee Cooper hopes, above all else, to use their $1.3 million station 311-kilowatt station in Myrtle Beach as a research tool.
The sun is expected to be shining brightly over Myrtle Beach during the dedication of South Carolina's largest solar power array Monday afternoon.
Installation of the 311-kilowatt array began last December. Since then, Santee Cooper has installed 1,300 solar panels on the roofs of several buildings and in a ground-level park on its Mr. Joe White Avenue warehouse complex. The public utility chose its Myrtle Beach property for the solar station because that location has more south-facing buildings than any of the company's other facilities across the state. South-facing solar panels collect more sunlight and generate more electricity than panels facing other directions.
"We think the station on average will generate electricity for about 30 homes," said Santee Cooper spokeswoman Mollie Gore.
The $1.3 million station was funded in part by a $475,000 grant from the South Carolina Energy Office. Much of the rest of the funding came from Santee Cooper's Green Power Program, which allows customers to purchase power from renewable energy resources, with the revenues directed toward investment in green power projects.
While the Myrtle Beach station will be the largest solar facility in the state, its output is a tiny fraction of the area's energy needs. By comparison, Gore says the utility's Winyah coal-fired plant in Georgetown has four steam units that each produce about 300 megawatts of power, about one thousand times the capacity of the Grand Strand solar array.
"There are things we'll learn from the solar station and that's what we're after," Gore said.
Gore acknowledges that solar power remains expensive. "Santee Cooper is looking for ways to build solar stations without driving up costs for our customers," she said.
One reason solar power is pricier than conventional power generation is that it's only available a small part of the time - when the sun is shining, Gore says.
Solar is largely dependant on the weather and while South Carolina gets an abundant amount of sunlight, Gore says the state's humidity acts as a filter. Frequent afternoon thunderstorms also cut down on solar production - a problem that's not as a big a concern in drier regions of the country.
For solar to become more price competitive with other forms of energy, "one thing that will have to be developed is a way to store electricity," Gore said.
But she said as production of solar panels goes up, the cost will come down.
Solar is not a huge part of the utility's power production now, but more stations will be coming online over the next two years, Gore says. Biomass production and other renewable energy sources will be added to the grid as well.
"Everything's a small step, but it all adds up to a better fuel mix."
How do you think we answer our need for energy? Which alternative sources do you think would be most beneficial? Or should we continue to do what we're doing?
