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“Monroeville had water sitting right there doing one job. Now it does two.”
Photo Credit: D3Energy
Monroeville, Ohio, has expanded solar generation without using additional cropland by placing a new array on its reservoir.
For a village of roughly 1,300 residents, 6 megawatts of new capacity is an unusually large solar presence and could offer a path other small towns may consider.
Electricity is now flowing into Monroeville’s local distribution grid from 9,222 panels mounted across three floating platforms on the village reservoir, according to Interesting Engineering. D3Energy says the installation is Ohio’s largest floating solar project and ranks among the five biggest in the United States.
By occupying about 12 acres of reservoir surface, the project avoids the roughly 30 acres a comparable ground-mounted system would have needed. That tradeoff is notable in Ohio, where a 2021 law has allowed about one-third of the state’s 88 counties to restrict large solar developments.
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The floating array builds on Monroeville’s earlier solar investment: the village has operated a 4-megawatt ground-mounted facility since 2017. With both projects in place, Monroeville now has about 13 times Ohio’s per-person solar capacity.
Other floating solar systems D3Energy has built in Ohio include projects for Del-Co Water in Delaware and for the City of Lima at Twin Lakes Reservoir, bringing the state’s active floating-solar capacity to nearly 10 megawatts.
Gardner Capital owns the Monroeville system and sells its electricity to the village, while D3Energy developed the project and Ohio-based Appalachian Renewable Power handled the contracting. D3Energy said the installation is its third floating solar project in Ohio.
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“Solar needs space, and in farm country there’s no such thing as spare ground,” said Stetson Tchividjian, managing director of D3Energy. “Monroeville had water sitting right there doing one job. Now it does two.”
Monroeville’s reservoir is part of a much broader push into floating solar. These stories look at similar projects and research on how water-based arrays can expand solar power while conserving land.
💡Go deep on the latest news and trends shaping the residential solar landscape
• Florida is turning highway ponds into floating solar, with room to power 200,000 homes.
• In Oregon, the state’s first floating solar array will power 60 homes and save water.
• Scientists say floating solar is fast becoming cost-competitive across the African continent’s vast reservoirs.
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