Case Study: Osage City Solar Array

Evergy is committed to providing our customers with cost-effective, reliable renewable energy solutions to help build a more sustainable future. Evergy is committed to being net-zero by 2045.

 The Evergy Energy Partners division has decades of experience developing diverse energy solutions with substantial long-term power cost benefits for utility, municipal, cooperative, and industrial customers. The benefits are accomplished by combining an in-depth understanding of long- and short-term utility planning, operations management, experience with regulators along with unparalleled experience negotiating multiple types of energy procurement and sale agreement structures. In 2024, we completed an exciting project to bring solar energy to the City of Osage City, Kansas to support their commitment of bringing green energy to the community.

About Osage City, Kansas

The City of Osage City is a municipal utility that offers a variety of services to its customers, including electric and natural gas. Osage City provides three-phase electrical service to all the residential, commerical and industrial businesses in the community with the capability to produce over 9,000 kW of power. The utility currently serves approximately 3,000 residents of Osage City.

Our Goal: To provide a low-cost power solution for osage city

Osage City has aspired to have a solar array on its local, retired landfill site since the late 1970’s and that goal is finally becoming reality. With the newly built array, the city will seamlessly integrate the costs of the power into the current rate structure and plan to eventually own the solar array. Evergy Energy Partners is excited to partner with such a forward-thinking community. Adding the solar array directly to the city’s distribution system allows for resource diversification with no additional congestion or transmission costs to the city. The array will provide predictable energy costs for 30 years or more as a long-term zero carbon energy source while also providing educational opportunities for the community.

About Osage Solar Array

Evergy Energy Partners and the City of Osage City have agreed to a 30-year Purchase Power Agreement (PPA). Osage City and Evergy Energy Partners designated the retired landfill property as home for the array. Typically, a property like this is extremely difficult to develop for anything other than industrial uses, but a clean energy source like solar is an ideal match. Evergy Energy Partners will own and operate the solar array, while Osage City will be purchasing the power directly from the site to realize the full economic and environmental benefits for its customers. 

Quick Stats

• Completed in the fall of 2024
• 8-acre solar array
• 3,192 solar panels 
• Generates nearly 1.75 MW of energy
• Enough energy to serve over 300 households annually
  
  

Project Details

Solar Array

The solar array is a collection of 3,192 solar panels that generates electricity as a holistic system. Each solar panel in the array captures sunlight and produces direct current electricity. The array is connected to a system that converts the direct current to usable alternating current electricity.

Bifacial Solar Panel

Evergy installed bifacial solar panels, which produce solar power from both sides of the panel. The bifacial panels are mounted over pollinator-friendly ground cover, allowing for greater solar power generation over time due to the cooling effects of the blend versus other ground cover options. The panels collect light directly from the sun and from light reflecting off the ground.

Single-Axis Tracker

Each bifacial solar panel is installed in a single-axis tracking system, which rotates the panels east and west throughout the day to capture more sunlight and generate more energy. Installing bifacial panels with single-axis trackers is an innovative strategy for optimizing the efficiency of the solar array as a whole.

Now is the right time to invest in renewable energy for your municipality or cooperative. Learn more about Evergy Energy Partners’ renewable energy solutions.