WAHOO, Neb (KMTV) — Driving on the east side of Wahoo its hard to ignore the acres of new solar panels soaking up the sun.
The city just cut the ribbon on the new array in early February, but the story of new solar farm began years ago with a gift.
"We were gifted the farm through a friend of ours. We took care of a lady who had no real close family, we met her through church and the community, she was on the library board when I was hired. Her name was Flora K Ewart, she was a delightful librarian," said Denise Lawver, the Director of the Wahoo Public Library.
Denise Lawver has worked for the Wahoo Public Library for 36 years and has spent 19 years as the library director.
Back in 2020, she attended a community meeting where Solar Energy developer GenPro approached the Wahoo community pitching their idea for a new solar farm in town.
But the developer needed ground to build the farm and it needed to be close to Wahoo's existing electricity transmission lines.
"I was like well I have farm ground right there by that project, so after the meeting was over I said perhaps this is a partnership we can look into," said Lawver
Denise and her husband came up with a plan for Flora's Farm. They would donate 10 acres of ground that would be put into a trust, then donated to GenPro to build the solar array.
Now Flora's farm ground is home to more than 6500 solar panels, generating enough electricity to power hundreds of homes.
"2 Megawatts of power is equivalent to the needs of 350 homes here in Wahoo. The facility should produce, If it meets what it is projected or modeled at it will produce about 6% of our total needs for power," said Ryan Hurst, the General Manager of Wahoo Utilities.
The story of Flora's farm isn't ending with the solar array.
The ground donated to the solar array will eventually be gifted back to the library when the array stops generating, helping keep Flora's legacy alive for the next generation in Wahoo.
"I know my little friend Flora would be very happy and delighted to know it was going to good use," said Lawver.
