Over the past year, the amount of solar power generated in Columbia has steadily increased, and private industry has been helping to drive the trend.
Through 2011, there were 28 megawatt hours produced, but from the beginning of February to the end of September, there were 200 megawatt hours produced.
Solar power makes up less than 1 percent of the city’s energy portfolio. Combined with power from two wind farms, methane gas captured from the Columbia and Jefferson City landfills and wood burned at Columbia’s Municipal Power Plant, the city’s renewable energy portfolio equals about 8 percent of the total system load, or about 1 million megawatt hours so far this year.