Utility-Scale Solar

Heartland CEO Mark Scheibe and Heartland’s Board of Directors flip an oversized switch to celebrate the completion of Heartland’s first 2 solar farms in spring 2021.

All Heartland Rural Electric Cooperative consumer-members benefit from access to the affordable, renewable, locally generated power produced by the cooperative’s two 1-megawatt (MW) solar farms.

Heartland’s solar farms were the first of 20 to be built statewide through the Kansas Cooperative Sun Power Program, a partnership between 12 Kansas co-ops and Arkansas-based Today’s Power, Inc. (TPI). Together, the farms provide 20 MW of power — enough for 80,000 homes throughout Kansas.

This opportunity to participate in the Kansas Cooperative Sun Power Program began when the wholesale power contract between all participating cooperatives and their forward-thinking generation and transmission cooperative, Kansas Electric Power Cooperatives, was modified to provide Kansas electric cooperatives with the ability to self-procure up to 15% of peak demand – with 5% of that amount specifically allowing for the addition of solar.

Heartland’s solar farms help keep rates as low as possible by reducing the amount of more expensive power the cooperative would otherwise have to buy during times of peak usage. Participation in the Kansas Cooperative Sun Power Program allowed Heartland and the other participating cooperatives to access economies of scale that would have been impossible on their own.

Today’s Power, Inc. was chosen as the solar equipment provider in 2020, with work on the farms beginning in early 2021 and concluding in May 2021.

For the length of the 25-year-or-more agreement, Heartland will purchase electricity generated by the solar farms at a low, fixed rate. The solar arrays are 100% owned and operated by TPI.

Greenbush Sun Farm Statistics:

  • Location: West of Girard, Kansas
  • Size: 1.42-Megawatt (MW) DC / 1 MW AC
  • Modules: 3,500 Solar Modules
  • Racking: Single-Axis Sun Tracking Technology
  • Inversion: 125 kilowatt (kW) String Inverters (8)

Urbana Sun Farm Statistics:

  • Location: Between Erie and Chanute, Kansas
  • Size: 1.4-Megawatt (MW) DC / 1 MW AC
  • Modules: 3.450 Solar Modules
  • Racking: Single-Axis Sun Tracking Technology
  • Inversion: 125 kW String Inverters (8)