Solar for All

OEC Solar Garden producing environmental benefits and solar power for all members

By now, you might have noticed OEC's Solar Garden on Interstate 35 between Norman and Moore. One of three solar facilities we operate in partnership with our wholesale power provider, Western Farmers Electric Cooperative, the Solar Garden helps us meet the desires of our membership to have access to renewable sources of power production. Let's look back on how well the OEC Solar Garden performed in 2021, its fourth full year in operation.

"We are very satisfied with the energy being produced by our Solar Garden," said Nick Shumaker, OEC's manager of system engineering.

While it's a small scale facility, its impacts are anything but small.

In 2021, the Solar Garden produced enough electricity to power over 25 homes for the entire year — a total of over 420,000 kilowatt hours. OEC's newest solar facility, a first-of-itskind collaboration with Norman Public Schools, the Solar Park produced enough electricity to power over 265 homes for the entire year — more than 3,846,615 kilowatt hours.

What may be more impressive than the power these facilities generated was the amount of greenhouse gases they didn't.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the more than 4.2 million kilowatt hours produced by the two facilities was the equivalent of 3.3 million pounds of coal not being burned, or 7.5 million miles not being driven by an average passenger vehicle.

"We also pride ourselves on making this renewable energy available to all 65,000 of our members," said Shumaker. "Some utilities offer access to solar power with subscriptions or the 'adoption' of panels, but we wanted to ensure all members could benefit from what the Solar Garden and our two solar farms produce."

We periodically offer tours of our Solar Garden. To see available tour dates and to learn more about how we are implementing a clean energy plan, visit www. okcoop.org/solar.