Some are calling it the biggest solar array in the state. Unfortunately, that award may already have gone to Galesburg residents Sam and Conor Field, whose ground-based solar array of 700 panels provides enough energy to power 20 to 25 homes, at least according to local utility Consumer’s Energy.

Still, the solar rooftop array at Louis Padnos Iron & Metal in Wyoming – of 636 Sharp solar panels across 15,000 square feet of roof – is nothing to sneeze at, particularly in a state where 10-kilowatt solar systems dominate the field.

For Padnos, located at 500 44th St. SW in Wyoming, the $1.27-million solar project represents a maximum output of 150 kilowatt hours a month of clean, renewable energy – a cap established by Consumer’s Energy.

Padnos’ first facility was in Holland, Michigan, more than 100 years ago. Today, the company operates in 19 locations throughout the state, recyling metal, paper, plastic and – more recently - electronics. The Wyoming facility opened in the summer of 2008.

The project was installed via a partnership with Cascade Engineering’s offshoot, Cascade Renewable Energy Solutions (formally known as Choose Renewables), the renewable energy arm of a company that has been doing business in the area for 36 years delivering engineered plastic systems and, more recently, sustainable business solutions in the form of wind turbines. The Wyoming installation is the division’s first big solar project, and shadows a future in which Cascade may become as big a player in solar energy as it currently is in wind power.

Padnos will test its solar system through 2009, and then in 2010 begin selling the electricity produced to Consumer’s Energy at a rate of 45 cents per kilowatt hour, under Consumer’s 2009 production incentive, which also pays 65 cents per kilowatt hour for residential solar energy production. These production incentives operate for up to 12 years under a fixed-rate contract. However, after May 1, 2010, new signatories will earn less; 37.5 cents per kilowatt hour (commercial) and 52.5 cents (for residential production).

Contracts like this help Consumer’s meet Michigan’s renewable portfolio standard, which requires utilities operating in the state to get 10 percent of their electricity from alternative energy sources by 2015.

After 2022, Padnos will own the system and continue to produce clean energy, at no cost, to offset the energy consumption at its Wyoming facility. The system also took advantage of alternative energy tax credits, which makes the property eligible for future tax breaks as well.

The Padnos solar project, which was installed by Swanson Electrical Services Inc. of Grant, has a base roofing layer of 30,000 square feet of white rubber membrane, designed not only to protect the roof but to reflect sunlight striking the roof back onto to the solar panels for added solar efficiency.

Michigan’s solar insolation values, which average between 2.5 and 3.0 (on a scale of 2.5 to 6.5 in the continental United States) are scarcely comparable to values in and near California’s Mohave Desert – where values can top 6.5, but average days of sunlight per year in the southern part of Michigan –estimated at 2800 hours – do not fall far behind those in Arizona, which gets about 3600 hours.

In addition, conventional silicon solar panels actually work better at cooler temperatures.