On Tuesday the City of Winter Park announced the installation of new solar panels atop the Aloma Water Treatment Plant. This is Winter Park’s second on-site photovoltaic (PV) system and it is estimated to produce 190,825 kilowatt hours of energy per year. Not only will this site contribute to the City’s sustainability efforts, it will also save the City over $320,000 throughout its 25-year lifetime.
“The City of Winter Park is committed to sustainability efforts and we’re always pursuing opportunities to increase the portion of renewable energy in our energy portfolio,” said Winter Park Mayor Steve Leary.
The installation, completed by 15 lightyears, a solar energy contractor based in Longwood, Fla., consisted of the placement of 366 panels on the ceiling of a two-million-gallon ground storage tank facility. David Zusi, director of the Water & Wastewater Utilities Department, which funded this installation, explained in a virtual ribbon-cutting video that “water treatment plants are high energy users and this will reduce the amount of energy [the City of Winter Park] has to purchase.”
Vanessa Balta, sustainability and permitting planner for the City shared, “we are so excited here to be committed to sustainability for our citizens and to be adding our second on-site PV system. The economics of solar PV can stand on its own, providing for significant long-term cost savings and an energy strategy that’s not subject to fuel price volatility.”
