A solar panel project at Mount Olivet Lutheran Church of Plymouth was completed and interconnected to Xcel’s grid on March 9, 2026. This system consists of 330, 415W DC panels (136.95 kWp) and two 50kWAC 3 phase SolarEdge inverters.
The system is projected to supply 76% of the church building’s annual electrical load and is financed through a power purchase agreement with Lake Street Solar. With this agreement, LSS funds the entire cost of construction. The church pays LSS for power at about 10% less than its utility company cost over several years, then has the option to purchase the system for a small fraction of the construction cost. In this case, the purchase will be less than one year of electricity cost savings from the system.
One month after start-up, the system is producing energy as expected. The graph below shows that the system produced almost 10 MWh of energy in the last 3 weeks (23 days) of March. Since this period straddles the spring equinox, it represents the mid-point of sun angle over the year. Over the next six months, system potential output will increase substantially, peaking around the summer solstice in June. The graph also shows how clouds and snow (March 15) affect production.
Construction Photos from Fall 2025
