NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Entergy New Orleans has celebrated the start of construction on the city's first large-scale effort to produce solar power.
Media outlets report that Entergy and city officials gathered Tuesday to break ground on the 1-megawatt pilot project. It is expected to be in service by mid-2016 and will be the only utility-scale solar installation in the Entergy system.
Entergy president Charles Rice says the project will integrate state-of-the-art battery storage technology. He says this should help with energy availability on cloudy days or at night.
In addition to giving information for future integrated resource planning — with more than 4,000 solar panels — the project will generate enough electricity to power 160 average homes.
Blattner Energy is set to start construction this month. South Coast Solar will assist in the installation.
