Ameren Missouri just cleared a hurdle on the creation of a new solar energy center near St. Louis.
The energy company announced Thursday that it won approval to build its third solar facility from the Missouri Public Service Commission, the regulating body over investor-owned utilities in the state.
The new facility will be located in New Florence, where Ameren’s Montgomery Community Solar Center already exists. Ameren will begin construction on the 7-megawatt site in spring 2025, and the company anticipates it being up and serving customers the following year.
Both Montgomery County locations are part of Ameren’s Community Solar program, which allows Missouri residents to opt in to drawing some portion of their electricity from solar energy. More than 4,700 residential and business customers already get 100% of their energy from one of the solar facilities.
The new facility, the company believes, will allow even more Missouri residents to choose solar. Rian Heidbrier, a program supervisor of renewables, told St. Louis Public Radio in June that it will help the state become more sustainable if residents choose to get even 10% — which would cost about $10 a month— of their electricity from solar.
“That will really help Ameren Missouri to increase the renewable energy that we’re putting onto the grid,” Heidbrier said. “I think if everybody does a little bit, then we can really make a big impact.”
The solar farm will help “enable net-zero carbon emissions by 2045,” said Greg Lovett, program manager for Community Solar, in a statement.
Ameren’s Montgomery Community Solar Center went online in 2022 and a similar facility at the St. Louis Lambert International Airport began serving customers in 2019.
