Red River Valley Co-op Power installed its solar demonstration project in mid-June 2016 to provide members with real information regarding the effectiveness of solar locally. Co-op employees did 100 percent of the installation work on the 4,200-watt array, which is located in the yard of the co-op's warehouse just east of Halstad.
The array consists of 14 410-watt photovoltaic panels and feeds the warehouse there. You can view real-time data and production via this link Local Solar Production. At 12 cents per kWh, the estimated payback is 20-21 years. With a federal tax credit, the payback is an estimated 14.7 years. That is with no maintenance issues. Capacity factors (amount of time the array is producing at maximum output over a period of one year) have typically been between 13-16 percent. Your cooperative will keep you posted with real data in the coming months.
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