Ocean City’s solar plant will power the resort and beyond

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The bill pitted the town of Ocean City against a coalition of manufacturers, labor unions and environmental advocates.
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Renewable energy in Ocean City has been a hot topic in recent years with offshore wind projects on the horizon. 

While the visibility of the wind turbines has been a point of contention, town officials say they are still committed to making Ocean City more green.

One way officials hope to achieve this renewable energy goal is through solar power.

Ocean City has partnered with Constellation, an Exelon company, to build a 10-megawatt solar energy project that will include more than 30,000 photovoltaic panels on 113 acres of land.

Of those 10 megawatts, Ocean City will receive energy from 3.5 of them, while Eastman Chemical Company will acquire the remaining 6.5 megawatts. Eastman will use its portion to help power a manufacturing facility in Chestertown, Maryland.

The groundbreaking for the project — located about 10 miles west of Ocean City at the intersection of Routes 50 and 90 — will take place Thursday morning.

Brendon Quinlivan, executive director of Distributed Energy Origination for Constellation, said when the company was identifying potential customers for solar projects in the Delmarva region, the town of Ocean City was one that displayed significant interest.

“We’re happy this type of offsite project is one we can bring to fruition for the town since they are very interested in contracting offsite renewable energy projects,” Quinlivan said. “We’re glad solar can allow for that in a way that’s appropriate and approved by the local community as well.”

This 10-megawatt solar energy project helps to satisfy Exelon’s renewable energy commitment to Delmarva, which is serviced by Delmarva Power. This commitment was created when Pepco merged under Exelon in 2016.

As a subsidiary of Pepco, Delmarva Power will distribute the energy produced by Constellation’s solar project to Ocean City. The solar panels are anticipated to account for about 20 percent of the town’s annual energy use.

At a recent meeting, the mayor and council moved to increase Ocean City’s renewable energy use to 51 percent by next year. Currently, the town uses 35 percent renewable energy, of which 15 percent is mandated by the state of Maryland.

Background: Ocean City to achieve 51 percent renewable energy by 2019

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Ocean City officials have identified key town-owned buildings, such as city hall, the convention center and the water plant, that will receive power generated from the solar panels.

In the first year, the solar energy system is expected to produce more than 5.6 million kilowatt-hours of electricity for Ocean City and save taxpayers about $120,000 per year, according to Constellation’s press release.

Constellation also anticipates the system will reduce carbon emissions by nearly 4,200 metric tons, which has a greenhouse gas equivalent of 899 passenger vehicles driven, according to estimates from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The project’s workforce will have up to 70 or 80 workers on site, Constellation spokesperson Dave Snyder said. About 50 or 60 of these employees work for local companies, such as Royal Plus Electric, Stuart Contractors and SMI Services of Delaware — all of which are sub-contractors for the project developer United Renewable Energy. 

“One thing that was very important for Constellation and our engineering procurement contractors was for us to source and use local contractors for the construction,” Quinlivan said.

Construction on the project is expected to be complete by the end of this year, with the solar panels up and running by early 2019.

Quinlivan said he has noticed a paradigm shift with customers who want to optimize their energy usage through both onsite and offsite means. Constellation helps customers fill in the gaps of their energy usage, he said.

“Ocean City and Eastman Chemical Company have been looking at their energy procurement strategies on a holistic basis so that’s what is unique about the project and the customers involved,” Quinlivan said.

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