NOW PRODUCING ELECTRICITY!

Click here to view real-time and lifetime output of the community solar farm!

Power Packs are available for purchase!

What is SunSmart?

SunSmart is a 2MW community solar farm between Airport Road and Highway 30. The project makes clean, solar energy more accessible to customers with shaded roofs, those who live in apartments, rent their homes, or for any other reason cannot install solar panels on their own property.

Customers of Ames Electric Services can buy shares in the solar farm, called “Power Packs.” Each Power Pack is a one-time investment and represents 175W of generating capacity. The original price of Power Packs was $300. Each year, the price of the Power Packs will be reduced by $15 to reflect the years remaining in the contract term. As of January 10, 2024, the price of power packs is $240, and will reduce by another $15 on December 10, 2025.

Owners of Power Packs will receive monthly credits on their utility bill. Bill credits are expected to average around $1 per month and are based on the actual production of the solar farm for the duration of the 20-year contract. Achieving a payback is possible, depending on how much the sun shines. People typically do not sign up for SunSmart to make money, but to use green, renewable, sustainable electricity.

How do I participate in the SunSmart Ames solar farm project?

You can purchase your SunSmart Power Packs with a paper or electronic purchase form, both found using the links below. Before purchasing Power Packs, click here to read the Terms and Conditions of the Power Pack Purchase Agreement.

• Click here to download a "print and mail' form to purchase Power Packs
• Click here to complete an online form to purchase Power Packs 

If you have any questions, please call 515.239.5177

Power Packs are fully transferable and can be donated or sold to another Ames Electric customer, applied to your new home should you move within Ames electric service territory, remain with the home should you move outside the service territory, or sold back to the utility.  The only requirement is that the credit remain inside the Ames Electric Services electric utility territory.

Project Milestones

Each Power Pack, over the 20-year life of the customer contract, could:

• produce enough electricity to power one average Ames home for about nine months
• offset 10,000 miles driven by car
• take one car's emissions off the road for a year
• reduce CO2 equal to about as much removed by one acre of trees
• reduce CO2 emissions by about five tons

The SunSmart Ames solar farm total could:   

• produce enough electricity to power 440 Ames homes each year
• in 20 years offset 113 million miles driven by car
• in 20 years take a little more than 11,000 car's worth of emissions off the road
• in 20 years reduce CO2 equal to that removed by about 11,000 acres of trees (an area the size of Boone, Story City, and Huxley combined)
• over 20 years reduce CO2 emissions by about 57,000 tons

SunSmart Ames was made possible through the participation of over 1000 Ames residents, businesses, and organizations, including: