US Navy, Duke Energy team up on 145-acre solar park project

CRANE, Ind. (AP) - The U.S. Navy is partnering with Duke Energy on a project to build a 145-acre solar park at southern Indiana's Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center.

The 76,000-panel solar installation would be owned, operated and maintained by Duke Energy and feed electricity into the utility's main grid to provide power to its customers. Those include Crane, a land-locked naval installation that's one of southern Indiana's biggest employers.

Duke Energy Indiana President Melody Birmingham-Byrd tells the Evansville Courier & Press (http://bit.ly/1Vm8Mqn ) that the solar park still needs state regulators' approval but she's confident it will be up and running by year's end.

The park's solar panels would turn sunlight into power and at peak performance generate 17 megawatts of power. That's enough to power about 17,000 homes for one day.

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Information from: Evansville Courier & Press, http://www.courierpress.com