For release: October 9, 2024
Double Honors: City Utilities’ Microgrid Wins Second Major Award of the Week
Fort Wayne, Indiana – Fort Wayne City Utilities’ innovative Microgrid and Floating Solar Panels system was honored for the second time in two days. This afternoon, Accelerate Indiana Municipalities (AIM) presented the utility with the Community Green Project of the Year Award during the Ideas Summit at the Grand Wayne Center.
The City Utilities’ Microgrid integrates solar panels, battery storage, and both methane and natural gas to power the city’s water, sewer treatment, and wet-weather pump station. Installing over 12,000 floating solar panels is one of the few such applications in the country, placing Fort Wayne at the forefront of innovative renewable energy technology.
Years of research by City Utilities led to this project, which makes the utility more resilient and cost-efficient. Floating solar panels can be installed closer together, generating about 15% more power than land-based systems. Once operational, the microgrid will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 4,600 tons annually equivalent to the emissions from 1,161 gasoline-powered vehicles.
Yesterday, City Utilities received the Utility of the Future Award for the Microgrid system, presented jointly by several national organizations, including the Water Environment Federation (WEF), National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA), The Water Research Foundation, US Water Alliance, and the WaterReuse organization.
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