by RC Miller, reporter
VALLEY, Neb. – Valmont, a company usually known for its center pivot irrigation systems and steel utility polls, is constructing a one-megawatt solar array on its Valley campus. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, one-megawatt could power about 190 homes. Clifford Fleener, the environmental director for Valmont, explains the rationale for this installation at the Valley campus.
Fleener said: “Why the Valmont campus? Well for several reasons, number one it’s our flagship campus and it’s 12 percent of our total energy consumption in this company is the Valley campus, more power is consumed here than all of our Amia sites combine.”
Valmont purchased the majority share of two other companies including Convert Italia and Solbras some years ago, and are now using the new solar tracking technology and insight from the acquisitions combined with the steel working skills of the Valley plant to construct the solar farm said Bridget Slavin, a sustainability specialist at Valmont.
“All the trackers are offsite; we have them coming in from Italy and Turkey but as we said the railings and actuator poles, all that stuff is being galvanized on site,” Slavin said.
The solar farm project is on schedule and should be completed by this November. All of the power produced at the site will be consumed by the Valley campus said Slavin.
Slavin said, “We will use up all the energy that we are creating, this array will cover about five to six percent of the valley campus power needs.”
The solar farm is expected to pay for itself over the next several years, and is estimated to prevent 747 metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere every year.
