Representative Guy Vander Linden toured three solar installations at Central College, Vermeer Corporation and Van Zante Farm this week.

The installations varied in size from the 25 kilowatt array on top of the Roe Center at Central College to the new 770 kilowatt array Vermeer Corporation is currently installing in Pella. Sponsored by The Iowa Solar Energy Trade Association, the tour provides legislators and other groups an opportunity to visit local solar installations to better understand costs, economic opportunities and potential benefits of solar. At the end of 2015, Iowa had an estimated 35 megawatts of installed solar including distributed solar and utility solar – enough to power 4,375 homes annually.