Solar generation facility under construction

At York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive, we’ve long tak­en an “all of the above” posi­tion when it comes to pow­er gen­er­a­tion. We rec­og­nize that, as the elec­tric­i­ty indus­try is present­ly struc­tured, there are three pri­ma­ry means of pro­duc­ing base-load power—coal, nuclear, and nat­ur­al gas.

Renew­ables also play a part in the ener­gy mix. The best-estab­lished form of renew­ables is hydro-pow­er. Dur­ing the last cou­ple of decades, wind, solar and bio­mass have also gained promi­nence.

Pilot project

Recent­ly, San­tee Coop­er, the state-owned elec­tric util­i­ty that gen­er­ates most of the elec­tric­i­ty dis­trib­uted by inde­pen­dent co-ops such as York Elec­tric, announced plans to pur­chase the out­put from a three-megawatt solar farm in Col­leton Coun­ty, owned by T.I.G. Sun Ener­gy. A total of 10,000 solar pan­els are being erect­ed there. They will pro­vide a means for San­tee Coop­er and South Car­oli­na’s 20 elec­tric coop­er­a­tives to ana­lyze the reli­a­bil­i­ty and cost-effec­tive­ness of this form of ener­gy pro­duc­tion. This pilot project is expect­ed to come on line ear­ly this year.

Both solar and wind have some inher­ent tech­ni­cal dis­ad­van­tages. Essen­tial­ly, the wind does­n’t blow, nor does the sun shine, all the time. This inter­mit­ten­cy requires that back­up base-load generators—usually fueled by nat­ur­al gas—be poised to oper­ate in the event that these renew­ables are not per­form­ing.

Because of their inter­mit­tent oper­a­tion, the best appar­ent prospect for wind and solar to make a sub­stan­tial con­tri­bu­tion to elec­tric­i­ty gen­er­a­tion would be the devel­op­ment of a large and effec­tive stor­age bat­tery. Such a bat­tery could store pow­er gen­er­at­ed when wind and solar units are oper­at­ing. This stored ener­gy could then be used dur­ing those peak-demand hours when the renew­able units would typ­i­cal­ly be dor­mant.

Slow march

It’s like­ly to be a slow march until the time a suit­able stor­age bat­tery can be per­fect­ed. In the inter­im, the coop­er­a­tives and San­tee Coop­er will be learn­ing all we can about solar ener­gy and the pos­si­bil­i­ties it might hold.

One out­come we’ll take great pains to avoid: Our mem­bers won’t be expect­ed to sub­si­dize this or any oth­er type of ener­gy pro­duc­tion. Both solar and wind must rep­re­sent viable alter­na­tives in order for York Elec­tric to embrace them. Our hope is that advances in tech­nol­o­gy will bring that to pass.

As the New Year begins, York Elec­tric’s focus con­tin­ues to be on deliv­er­ing safe, reli­able ser­vice. The York Elec­tric fam­i­ly of employ­ees wish­es you a hap­py and safe New Year and eager­ly looks for­ward to being of ser­vice to you. We’re always look­ing out for you!