Solar Electric Project Groundbreaking in Pocomoke City, MD

     The Mayor and City Council are pleased to announce that they will hold a groundbreaking ceremony for their new Solar electric generation plant on Wednesday, June 25 at 5:00 p.m. The ceremony will be held at the project site on Dunn Swamp Road, 1/4 mile south of the Pocomoke Beltway.
     City officials have been working on this project for several months with partners Standard Solar LLC, Inc. and Sun Edison Company.  The new Solar array will be built on vacant upland property owned by the City. The project will encompass approximately 10 acres and will include over 6,200 new solar panels producing 2.1 Mega Watts of electricity per day.  The electricity produced will be virtually credited to all of the City's electric meters, and is expected to result in a reduction of the City's electric bills by approximately 16% or over $40,000/year. Several local non-profit groups will also join the City's new network and will realize similar reductions in their electric bills. These include the Delmarva Discovery Center, MARVA Theater, Samartian Shelter, and the Worcester County Developmental Center in Newark, Maryland.
The City has entered into a 20  year lease for the site and a separate Power Purchase Agreement with Sun Edison, which will own the new Solar Array on City property.  The construction of the project and all future management and maintenance will be the responsibility of Standard Solar LLC.  The company currently operates several similar facilities in the Mid-Atlantic region, including the Perdue headquarters in Salisbury, Maryland.  There will be no cost to Pocomoke City related to the construction, operation, or maintenance  of this project. Actual construction should begin by late summer and be completed late this year. To the City's knowledge, this will be the largest municipal government solar project on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and the only one south of Kent County on the upper Shore.
        According to Mayor Bruce A. Morrison, "The City Council, staff,and I are proud and excited to be involved in this important green energy project. This new Solar array will benefit our taxpayers due to lower electricity bills, and will benefit our environment through the use of a renewable energy source.  We will also be able to help several local non-profit groups reduce their electric bills."  He added, "We hope to be able to demonstrate the effectiveness of this major cost saving project and become a model for other local governments on the Delmarva Peninsula."