Following the announcement of a new solar power plant in Wyandot County, Ohio, comes the completion of another solar thin-film installation — the second the state has seen in as many weeks.

Dayton Power & Light Company (DP&L), a utility, today announced the opening of a 1.1-megawatt (MW) solar installation at its Yankee substation in Montgomery County in southwestern Ohio. Comprised of over 9,000 thin-film solar modules from Sharp, the “Yankee Solar Array” is expected to generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of 150 homes.

“Exploring solar technology is just one way DP&L is diversifying our sources for electricity generation to support our compliance with Ohio’s renewable energy requirements,” said Paul Barbas, president and CEO, DP&L.

Under state renewable energy mandates, 25 percent of Ohio’s electricity is to come from renewable resources by 2025 — and, of that amount, half a percent is supposed to come from solar energy technologies.

A number of firms assisted with the financing, engineering and construction of the project. Ameridian Specialty Services, Inc., of Cincinnati, led the construction team, which, according to the press release, had a roster that looked like this:

– Miller-Valentine Commercial Construction of Dayton handled the overall site construction.

– Schneider Electric of West Chester supplied the ac/dc inverters for the solar panels.

– ESI Electrical Contractors of Dayton provided electricians to wire the solar panels.

– Inovateus Solar of South Bend, Indiana handled the procurement of the solar panels from Sharp USA and developed the overall solar site design.

– Schletter, Inc. of Tucson, Arizona supplied the solar panel racks and installed the posts that support the panels.

Seeing the project through, in other words, took a lot of hard work:

“In spite of all obstacles the project was completed successfully, on time and we are exceptionally proud of the end result,” said Betty Owens, president and CEO of Ameridian. “Construction took over 13,000 man hours to complete, with more than 80% of this labor provided by local Ohio contractors. Those workers installed equipment containing 73 tons of aluminum, 67 tons of steel and 164,000 feet of wire.”

If that’s not cooperation in the heartland, I don’t know what is. Ron Kenedi of Sharp seems to agree:

“It is tremendous that Dayton Power & Light, Ameridian, Inovateus, Schneider Electric and their partners have deployed this landmark solar power system,” said Ron Kenedi, vice president, Sharp Solar Energy Solutions Group.  Sharp is pleased to be meeting the growing demand for thin film utility-scale solar power plants with our high efficiency amorphous silicon thin film PV modules.”