The Missouri Public Service Commission has approved an application by Ameren Missouri to construct, install, own, operate and maintain various small solar generation facilities at different locations within its service territory as part of a pilot program.
In the Solar Partnership Program, Ameren would place solar equipment on a customer's premises under a long-term lease agreement. The company would retain and own all electricity and associated renewable benefits from the facility.
Each solar installation would constitute a small generating unit interconnected to the company's electric distribution system.
The program involves distributed generation - electricity generated by one of a variety of small, grid-connected devices, which can be located throughout the company's service territory at the distribution level as opposed to the transmission level.
All Ameren Missouri non-residential electric customers in good standing may participate in the program if they have the legal authority to enter into a contractual agreement assigning rights to the company necessary to allow production of electricity on the customer's premises using solar equipment as a renewable resource.
Ameren anticipates installing three to five facilities in this program, each in range of between 100 kilowatts to 2 megawatts. Company officials said none of the sites have been determined yet.
Ameren Director of Renewable Energy Bill Barbieri said the intent is to have the first solar partnership energy center installed and operational sometime next year.
"Our Integrated Resource Plan, a 20-year energy outlook, includes adding 45 megawatts of solar energy," he said. "The Solar Partnership Program will help us gain insight and knowledge into the benefits and challenges of smaller scale distributed solar generation, which may play a role in meeting future energy needs."