The City of Perry will be home to Iowa’s first customer hosted solar project after a lease agreement was reached with Interstate Power and Light Company, also known as Alliant Energy.

Perry City Administrator Sven Peterson says the project is through the customer hosted solar program. Peterson says the city has been trying to get solar developed on the brownfield site for some time now. 

“This is going to be actually the first installation of this program in the state of Iowa. So, it’s really exciting for Perry to be able to be that first project but I would have to say the project probably goes all the way back into the early 2010s.”

Peterson Tells Raccoon Valley Radio that Alliant Energy will build a 1-megawatt solar facility and lease the land from the City of Perry for a total of roughly $45,000 per year for at least 25 years with options to extend after the initial period. Peterson says the city will also buy back renewable energy credits.

“We will be able to buy those back to essentially offset part of the City of Perry’s electric use and consumption. So, that project alone will get us almost to about 50-percent offset of our energy use or also completely offset the consumption of electricity of the wastewater treatment plant that’s our biggest user in the City of Perry.”

The project is expected to be operational by mid-2022.