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Solar panels at Ameren Missouri's Montgomery Community Solar Center in New Florence, Mo. tilt towards the sun on Thursday, June 2, 2022. The solar power facility was put into service earlier 2022 and is the largest Ameren Missouri solar energy center at 5.7 MW.
Ameren announced Thursday that it will install two new, smaller-scale solar arrays in St. Louis and in Jefferson County — the latest rounds of a program that aims to outfit spaces like parking lots with the technology.
The solar installations will take root at facilities already owned by the St. Louis-based electric utility, and are expected to be able to power about 55 homes by the end of next year, the company said.
The two projects are part of Ameren’s Neighborhood Solar program, which features solar installations in parking lots and other “underutilized” spaces, including the property of partnering organizations.
One of the new projects will be in north St. Louis, at an Ameren facility at Interstate 70 and Union Boulevard. The other will be at a company facility in House Springs, in Jefferson County.
The two new “solar energy canopies” will comprise about 1,200 panels, and will cover an area approximately the size of two football fields. Similar past installations in other places, like Southeast Missouri State University, provide covered parking in addition to clean energy.
Though still predominantly reliant on coal power, Ameren has made increasing commitments to renewable energy in recent years — with plans to invest billions in solar and wind over the next two decades, and to reach “net zero” carbon emissions by 2045.
While still in the early stages of that push, the company has made a steady drumbeat of recent solar announcements — including plans for a list of progressively larger, industrial-scale solar projects that will dwarf its relatively modest installations that are currently in service.
For example, the planned Huck Finn Solar Project, announced in June, will be able to power about 40,000 homes, and will be 25 times the size of any existing solar farms in Missouri, the company said.
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Solar panels at Ameren Missouri's Montgomery Community Solar Center in New Florence, Mo. tilt towards the sun on Thursday, June 2, 2022. The solar power facility was put into service earlier 2022 and is the largest Ameren Missouri solar energy center at 5.7 MW.
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