Pilkington North America, Inc., an Ohio-based glass manufacturer, will soon be reaping the benefits of the glass it produces for First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR). Hull & Associates, Inc., a project development company, is building a 248 kilowatt solar farm at Pilkington’s research and development facility in Toledo, Ohio.

The photovoltaic array will provide power to the facility where new glasses for PV modules are being developed by Pilkington. First Solar is just one company that uses Pilkington glass. The $1.5 million system will supply roughly 12 percent of the electricity needed to run Pilkington’s research and development facility. Hull is financing the system, partly with a $680,782 grant from the Ohio Energy Office through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Renewable energy is just beginning to take off in Ohio, because of the state’s renewable portfolio standard, said Steve Giles, energy market leader for Hull.

Construction on the array, which is being built on a brownfield, began in December.

“We expect it to be done by the end of January,” Giles said.

Pilkington signed a power-purchase agreement with Hull for the power generated by the array, according to Giles.

“We don’t discuss specific terms, but it is in excess of 10 years,” he said.

He added that though Hull won’t discuss the terms of the contract, once the system is operational, Pilkington will see some savings on their overall energy costs.

The project is a “behind-the-meter” project.

“Behind-the-meter is a project where we are building a facility, and the power’s going back to that customer. We’re offsetting electric purchases, but not putting it back on the grid,” said Giles.

He said all of Hull’s projects are behind-the-meter and clarified that they differ from distributed generation projects because power produced by the array isn’t likely to make it to the grid.

Giles said that it’s the largest photovoltaic system that Hull has designed so far. The company also built a 93 kilowatt array at its offices in Bedford, Ohio.

“We are working on multiple other projects. We don’t just do solar; we’re also involved in wind and biomass,” Giles said. “Our market is predominantly industrial and municipal clients.”

Image courtesy of Pilkington North America.