CONWAY, Ark. – An energy company in Conway is set to unveil a project that could save its customers some serious cash.
Conway Corp is putting the final touches on its solar farm, with an expected completion day in May.
Right now, a sunny day in Conway doesn’t mean much more than a few extra hours spent outside, but in a few months, it could be the difference in dollars spent on electricity bills.
“Having that price certainty is really important to us,” Conway Corp CEO Bret Carroll said.
Carroll said plans for the company’s solar farm began in 2019, as Conway Corp looked for new ways to power the city.
Little did they know, four years later it would have a much bigger impact on the consumer’s wallet.
“If [energy] is being generated there, that’s electricity that won’t have to be generated at a coal plant or a gas plant,” Carroll said.
As the price of natural gas rose, so did the price to generate electricity.
Carroll said switching to solar, with a 20-year fixed price, will save millions for the company and the average homeowner.
“I think if we would have had it last year when natural gas prices were as high as they were, it could have saved us probably $7 to $8 million dollars, just last year,” Carroll said.
The farm is expected to generate power equally to about 21,000 households. When you compare that to the city’s population of roughly 65,000, you’re looking at an impact that is one-third the size of the city.
Carroll said customers will pay a fixed price for the energy used from the solar farm, which will mitigate the impact of inflation in the future.
“It lets us plan from a budgeting perspective, it lets our customers plan, it minimizes potential rate increases that we have to do,” Carroll said.
Carroll said the farm is expected to be up and running by May 1.