The city of Nixa will soon be home to the largest solar panel farm in southwest Missouri.
A groundbreaking for the 72-acre facility was held Tuesday morning. The project was suggested to the city roughly four years ago. The city hopes to have power running through the electric grid by the end of the year. Nixa has partnered with Gardner Capital Inc., Nixa Utilities, and MC Power Companies to create the farm.
According to Drew Douglas, public information officer for the city of Nixa, roughly nine percent of the city’s energy consumption will now come from solar. Previously, power was supplied by Springfield City and the Southwestern Power Administration.
Along with using clean energy, Douglas says Nixa will see other advantages to using a solar farm.
“By purchasing power from them we’re getting some savings. Overtime the savings are going to amount to about 2.5 million dollars over the contract of 25 years,” says Douglas.
The city says the solar farm will have 33,288 solar panels, and plans to buy 100 percent of the power that the farm generates.
Nixa will also reduce its carbon footprint by 10,542 metric tons a years. According to Douglas, that’s equivalent to burning 11 million pounds of coal or using 1.2 million gallons of gasoline.