Renewables

Evergy plans 10 MW solar array for Hawthorn plant in KC, Mo.

Jan. 7, 2022

Half of the energy from the installation will be for its Solar Subscription members

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Kansas and Missouri energy utility firm Evergy plans to build a solar array on 67 acres of land near its Hawthorn plant in northeast Kansas City, Missouri.

The 10 MW installation, pending regulatory approval, will include over 22,000 solar panels and begin operation in fall 2022.

A total of 5 MW from the installation will be for Evergy’s Solar Subscription program members and the remainder will serve all Evergy customers. Almost 1,200 Evergy customers have subscribed to receive energy from the solar array.

Evergy Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer Chuck Caisley explained, “Our Hawthorn power plant is a prime location to showcase Kansas City’s commitment to renewable energy and our city’s forward-thinking progress. Bringing this renewable energy to Hawthorn will limit the expense by using infrastructure already in place.”

The new installation is part of the firm’s plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045. The plan includes 500 MW of renewable energy in the next two years and almost 4 GW in the next 10 years.

About the Author

EnergyTech Staff

Rod Walton is senior editor for EnergyTech.com. He has spent 14 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist.

Walton formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

He can be reached at [email protected].

EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids.

Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.