More than 30 solar projects in the works for Indiana company

An Indiana power company announced a plan to add more than 30 new solar generation systems to its service territory.Indianapolis Power & Light Company (IPL) says its customers and developers plan to add the new solar generation systems under agreements filed by IPL with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) for approval.These projects will increase the total solar power under contract by IPL to almost 100 megawatts.Proposed projects range from as small as a pair of 20-kilowatt projects at Maple Creek Village Apartments on the Near Westside to as large as two 10 megawatts (each) arrays at the Indianapolis International Airport. If all the projects are completed, IPL will likely rank first in the central region for solar generation.
"Solar generation is an important part of IPL's commitment to developing renewable generating resources," IPL President and CEO Ken Zagzebski said. "We have increased our renewable resources portfolio, ranking eighth in the U.S. in available wind-capacity on a per customer basis, and we look forward to this possible significant increase in solar generation."If all of these projects are completed as planned, they are projected to bring $300 million of direct investment to the Indianapolis area along with IPL's renewable generation portfolio.IPL customers already own or host 2.1 megawatts of solar generation through projects completed with eight commercial and industrial customers in its service territory. These projects, as well as the proposed new projects are all part of IPL's 3-year Rate Renewable Energy Production pilot program, which is now closed to new participants.
"People have tried to do similar work but the problem has always been that the metal they use also absorbs some light and doesn't contribute to the photocurrent — so it's just lost light." More work needs to be done, she adds. "We want to achieve more optimization, and we're also interested in looking at cheaper metals to build a better cell. We'd also like to better target where photons are absorbed in the cell — this is important to photovoltaics, because you want to absorb as many photons as you can as close to the charge-collecting electrode as you possibly can."