BROWNSTOWN — Brownstown recently became the first municipality in Jackson County to tap into the energy of the sun to save money on utility costs.

On Monday morning, town council members gathered at the town’s wastewater treatment plant at 1600 W. U.S. 50 for a ribbon cutting ceremony for a solar plant to power that facility.

Town councilman Mark Reynolds, who lost his life in a logging accident on Dec. 3, 2022 in Columbus, was the one to get the project off the ground, town council President Gregg Goshorn said.

Now, they’ve arrived at a “full circle moment,” he said.

Goshorn said the solar plant being installed lined up perfectly with the sanitary sewer project completed this past year. That $7.26 million project included $1.725 million in improvements at the wastewater treatment plant.

The conversion of the wastewater treatment plan from electricity to solar power also included replacing more than 230 sodium vapors bulbs with LEDs. The project was completed by Veregy LLC, a Phoenix, Arizona-based company with an office in Indianapolis.

Rick Anderson, an account executive with Veregy, was present for the ribbon cutting along with Veregy Project Manager John Emmet.

Anderson later gave a breakdown of the solar plant.

The base contract for the 193.6 kWDC (kilowatt DC capacity) of solar at the plant was $913,632, he said.

Over the course of 20 years, the energy and operational savings for the project are at $1,330,228, Anderson said.

The town also will receive a federal Inflation Reduction Act payment of approximately $257,935 in 2025 to help reduce the project’s cost. The town financed the project with a loan.

Indiana is a regulated utility state, which means the power Hoosiers purchase is dependent on location, Anderson said.

Brownstown is located in Duke Energy’s service territory, which has had an average rate increase of 6% over 15 years, he said.

When looking into Seymour projects, Anderson said he has seen that average rate from 2018 to 2024 go up 66%.

The timing of installing the solar plant was perfect not only because of the sanitary sewer project Goshorn mentioned, but because of the Inflation Reduction Act benefit provided at this time, Anderson said.

He called it a “guaranteed savings situation” because if Veregy cannot meet the projected amount of savings for the year, they have to write a check to cover the difference.

Projects like these are considered “no change order projects”, Anderson said, because there is no additional cost to the town once the project is complete.

Maintenance and monitoring also are included, so if something happens that requires repairs, there will be no extra charge to the town.

Construction of the Brownstown solar plant was completed a few weeks ago and it was energized at that time, Anderson said.

In 2002, Crothersville Community School Corp. became the first Jackson County school district to use solar power.

Nearly 2,000 solar panels were placed on the roof of the school building and nearby central administration building. At that time, installing solar could save the corporation around $114,000 per year on electricity bills.