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Pivot Energy now has three operational solar farms in Marion County.  Two opened late last year north of Sandoval and a third has come online this year south of Salem.

Director of Operations Angie Burke showed off the facility south of Salem to the media this week.

“Pivot Energy is a nationwide solar developer,” Burke said. “We develop, manage construction, finance, and then own solar assets like this for the long term. We’re spread across over a dozen sites, including Illinois. Illinois is a really big market for us. As of today, we have thirty projects that are either operational or under construction. Approximately a hundred additional projects are in early-stage development.”

Burke says they specialize in smaller solar sites.

“Each of our sites is from about three acres up to about 50 acres. We love to see a nice, flat, square parcel of land. That doesn’t always happen. In this type of parcel that was formerly agricultural land, this is an ideal site for us. The other key consideration is that we’re close to interconnection, which means that point where we connect into the grid. For our scale of sites, we’re looking for three phase, lower voltage than some of those large utility-scale solar sites you might see.”

Burke says while the warranty on the solar panels is only for 25 years, they expect their facilities to operate for 40 years.  At that point, the panels are still making 80-percent power.

Burke says under a deconstruction bond, they are required to remove everything including the underground wiring to the power connection when the solar farm is no longer operational.  Burke says the land can then be returned to farming.  She notes all the structure for the solar panels are installed directly into the ground without any concrete so they can easily be pulled up.

The solar farm south of Salem provides power to the Electric Cooperatives in Southern Illinois while the two north of Sandoval are hooked into the Ameren Power system.

Burke notes Illinois is very ahead of the curve in having favorable conditions for development of solar arrays.