juwi solar Inc. (JSI), the U.S. subsidiary of Germany-based juwi Group, recently began construction on two large field-based solar installations, one in Ohio and one in Florida.

Described as free-field projects (that is, located on land which is not being used for any other purpose), the first, in Ohio (the Wyandot Solar Energy Generation Facility), is a 12-megawatt solar photovoltaic “farm” in Upper Sandusky, Ohio which will, when completed in the summer of 2010, produce about 15.8 million kilowatt-hours of electricity.

This is enough to power about 1,350 homes, and is the equivalent of preventing 11.347 metric tons of carbon dioxide from being generated through fossil-fuel burning power plants. It is also the equivalent of removing 2,170 cars from the road, or planting about 291,000 trees.

The second field installation, in Jacksonville, Florida, rated at 15 megawatts, will produce 22.4 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, which is enough to electrify about 1,870 homes and prevents 16,087 metric tons of carbon dioxide – the same as taking 3,076 cars off the road or planting 412,484 trees. This solar farm is also scheduled for completion in the summer of 2010.

Ownership rights to both facilities were acquired by PSEG Solar Source LLC (no connection with the utility) in September, and power purchase agreements arranged with Florida utility JEA and Columbus, Ohio-based AEP (American Electric Power) which will run for 30 years and 20 years, respectively.

Adding solar power considerably improves both utility’s “green” footprints. AEP, operating as AEP Ohio, AEP Texas, Appalachian Power (in Virginia, West Virginia), AEP Appalachian Power (in Tennessee), Indiana Michigan Power, Kentucky Power, Public Service Company of Oklahoma, and Southwestern Electric Power Company (in Arkansas, Louisiana and east Texas), produces electricity via a mix that is 68 percent coal and 23 percent natural gas.

The Jackson Energy Authority, JEA, based in Jacksonville, serves more than 360,000 customers in Jacksonville and parts of three adjacent counties via a generation mix that is also largely coal, oil and fossil-derived fuels.

Juwi solar, the company behind the recent Mars snack food 2.2-megawatt installation in New Jersey, used (or will use) First Solar’s cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film panels, which were reportedly the first thin-film panels to break the $1-per-watt manufacturing price barrier early this year. The Mars installation is also owned by an affiliate of PSEG Solar Source LLC.