LIMA, Ohio (WLIO) -Â The city of Lima is once again a leader in the state, this time with solar energy.
The city officially switched on its four-acre, 3,120-panel floating solar field Wednesday morning at the city's Twin Lakes reservoirs.
The city now has the second-largest floating solar array in the state. The project will provide power to the Lima Water Treatment Plant.
It has been a multi-year, multi-partner project designed to provide clean power while offsetting 976 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually.
The city officially switched on its four-acre, 3,120-panel floating solar field Wednesday morning at the city's Twin Lakes reservoirs.
"The use of the floating solar panels allows us to use areas of water that are not used for anything else. Does not take up any space that will be used for farming or housing developments. that sometimes people are opposed to," Eric Bontrager, operations manager for the Lima Utilities Department, said.
"There's a land conservation piece that I think is, a huge part of the conversation with any kind of environmental aspect. There's also some ancillary benefits that you get with floating solar. Things like reduced evaporation, reduced algae growth are some of the things that we see that are, you know, some of the benefits that are on top of just the clean energy generation," Stetson Tchividjian, managing director of D3Energy, said.
The panels will generate 2 megawatts of power, which is equivalent to the energy used by 250 homes for a year.Â
