Able Energy Company with the assistance of Excel Energy proposed the building of a solar garden in Washington County.  The current location for the proposed garden was either Woodbury or Lake Elmo and is expected to cover almost five acres of land.

This 1.2 megawatt project would produce enough energy to power around 140 homes in the area.

“A household that uses about 7,000 kilowatt hours a year, [the community solar garden] would help “offset 100 metric tons” of carbon dioxide, which is the “equivalent of growing 354 trees or offsetting 71 tons of burned coal,” said Ben Ganje, Able Energy spokesman, in an interview with the StarTribute.

This would greatly reduce the carbon footprint of the Washington County.  This kind of change is needed due to our lack of action to save the environment.  This would be a huge step in improving the Stillwater area and making it just a little be greener.

“There has been many concerns, especially in the last five years, with how we are changing and destroying our earth, as well as slowly using up all of our fossil fuel resources that we so heavily rely on. So this form of new energy takes out both of those factors while still outputting useable electricity,” said junior Peace Sinyigaya.

This would be the first opportunity for people to get solar energy without having to buy solar panels themselves.  This not only save the individual buyer money but if something were to happen to the panels, having a large amount of them in one location makes that location a priority to fix first.

“Solar energy is a good option for this area mainly because of the expansive amount of people in the market that would love to buy into such a project, but at the same time, we do not get as much sun as other regions in the United States might,” said Sinyigaya.

The Lake Elmo area has been chosen for its unique location between Woodbury and Stillwater, both of which are major energy users.  In addition, because Stillwater occupants have a somewhat higher standard of living, many can afford to spend a little more the first year for a panel than in other locations.

“Washington County as a whole, Woodbury in general, has a strong appetite for solar and green energy that’s probably as much or more so than any other place in the metro area,” said Ganje.