Community Solar Facility Begins Serving Customers
The Ameren Missouri Lambert Community Solar Center is now operational and serving customers – and plans are in place to develop future Community Solar sites with a total capacity up to 10 times the size of the Lambert site.
“Opening the Ameren Missouri Lambert Community Solar Center is one of many steps we are taking toward bringing renewable energy to our customers,” said Michael Moehn, chairman and president of Ameren Missouri. “Expanding our popular Community Solar program by developing additional solar facilities gives even more of our customers the opportunity to benefit from renewable solar energy and moves Ameren Missouri closer to our goal of providing 100 megawatts of solar energy by 2027.”
The Ameren Missouri Community Solar program allows eligible customers to participate in solar generation without installing or maintaining solar panels on their property. Through the program, customers can sign up to purchase 100-kilowatt-hour blocks of solar energy generated at Ameren Missouri’s Community Solar facility. The blocks are sold at a predetermined rate, so customers lock in the cost for energy from the solar-power block for the life of the subscription. The new facility is located on land owned by St. Louis Lambert International Airport just west of the airfield near Lindbergh and Missouri Bottom Road.
Customer response to the program has been overwhelming. It launched in the fall of 2018 and was fully subscribed in 55 days. Customers interested in participating in Community Solar can sign up on a wait list.
“The Ameren Missouri Lambert Community Solar Center was a pilot project, and we now know our customers want more renewable generation,” Moehn said. “As we look at developing additional facilities, we’re excited about the future and supporting customers’ renewable energy goals.”
Ameren Missouri plans to release details about additional Community Solar facilities in the upcoming months. Current wait-listed customers interested in Community Solar will have the first option to participate in the expanded program.
Ameren Missouri is committed to transitioning to cleaner forms of generation in a responsible fashion. Those plans include:
Adding a total of 50 megawatts (MW) of solar generation by 2025, with a total increase of 100 MW of solar generation by 2027.
Owning at least 700 MW of new wind generation by the end of 2020.
Reducing carbon dioxide emissions 35% by 2030, 50% by 2040 and 80% by 2050, based on 2005 levels.
Retiring more than half of its coal-fired generation capacity in the next 20 years, beginning with the Meramec Energy Center in 2022.