West Richland solar project is about to generate its 1st electricity

Benton REA will celebrate its first community solar project at 1 p.m. Friday.

Benton Rural Electric Association members are invited to attend the ribbon cutting at the Co-op Solar at 6102 W. Van Giesen St. across from the Benton REA West Richland Office.

Electricity generated by the 30.2 kilowatt solar project will be credited to the electric accounts of 31 REA members who enrolled in the program.

In August REA members were given the chance to buy the energy produced from 550 solar units. One solar unit is about one-sixth of one solar panel used in the project.

The project sold out in eight days after enrollment opened.

The project will begin producing electricity after Hot Solar Solutions of Kennewick finishes construction early this month.

The solar panels are expected to produce about enough electricity to power 2.5 average-sized West Richland homes.

When the project goes live, hourly electric generation may be tracked at BentonREA.org/co-op-solar.

This story was originally published December 5, 2018 at 6:14 PM.