Prairie Sun Community Solar Garden Award Number: DE-EE0006216 CX(s) Applied: B5.16 Weatherization and Intergovernmental Program Date: 03/14/2016 Location(s): ND Office(s): Golden Field Office
Office of NEPA Policy and Compliance
March 14, 2016
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Prairie Sun Community Solar Garden
Award Number: DE-EE0006216
CX(s) Applied: B5.16
Weatherization and Intergovernmental Program
Date: 03/14/2016
Location(s): ND
Office(s): Golden Field Office
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is proposing to provide funding to the North Dakota Department of Commerce to construct a Community Solar Garden using a ground-mounted, solar photovoltaic (PV) array. The purpose of the project is to provide the Cass County Electric Coop (CCEC) members access to solar energy and to provide data to CCEC membership on the viability of solar energy in northern climates.
The proposed project activities would include the installation of a 300-foot by 150-foot, ground-mounted solar PV array consisting of 324 solar panels rated at 315 Watts each to generate a total of 102 kW of electricity, and a utility interconnect to place the generated electricity back on an existing distribution system. The racking for the panels would use 63 helical anchors measuring five inches in diameter and buried five feet deep. The City of Fargo has leased approximately one acre of a thirteen-acre lot to CCEC for installation of the solar PV array. The site is zoned for public or institutional use. It was historically agricultural land and is currently an empty dirt field. There is a small highway and large agricultural fields to the west, commercial buildings to the north, an above-ground water storage facility to the east, and residential housing to the south. The interconnection to the grid would involve 780 feet of trenching for underground cables that would be tied into existing electrical at a metering box on the southeast corner of the site. All required building and electrical permits would be obtained.