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Million Dollar Research
Manager of System Engineering Nick Shumaker helping spearhead efforts to bring solar power to low-income members through DOE grant
By Erin Kelly, NRECA Staff Writer
The U.S. Department of Energy awarded the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) a $1 million, three-year grant to research the best ways for electric cooperatives to extend the benefits of solar power to low-income members. OEC's Nick Shumaker, manager of system engineering and a co-op leader in renewable energy, is helping spearhead efforts to see the grant's purpose come to life.
“Eighty-five years ago, when there was no electricity in rural America, rural electric cooperatives were borne out of the need to address the lack of access to electricity in many rural households,” said Adaora Ifebigh, NRECA’s senior manager of research and development engagements and leader of NRECA’s Advancing Energy Access for All initiative. ]“Fast forward to today. While the needs are different, changes in the global and U.S. economies have presented new challenges and those communities are at risk of being left behind.”
The DOE grant funds NRECA’s Achieving Cooperative Community Equitable Solar Sources (ACCESS) project, the flagship effort of Advancing Energy Access for All, which spotlights co-ops’ efforts to ensure that grid advancements benefit everyone.
NRECA is working with six co-ops that are already conducting innovative solar projects designed to benefit low and moderate-income consumer-members. NRECA will partner with those co-ops to see what works best and develop resources to share with other co-ops across the country, Ifebigh said.
Co-ops that are participating in the project are: Anza Electric Cooperative in California, Oklahoma Electric Cooperative in Norman, Orcas Power & Light Cooperative in Eastsound, Washington; Roanoke Electric Cooperative in Aulander, North Carolina; BARC Electric Cooperative in Millboro, Virginia; and Kit Carson Electric Cooperative in Taos, New Mexico. [6520400907]
OEC partnered with Norman Public Schools to save energy costs by building a 15-acre, 2-megawatt solar farm that will generate about 30 percent of the school’s power and reduce its costs. "We are happy to participate in this project and share the data and results of our partnership with Norman Public Schools to hopefully guide other co-ops in future renewables efforts," said Shumaker.
Construction of the solar farm is expected to be completed in January.
