Mason City manufacturer installing 500 KW solar plant

MASON CITY – A Mason City manufacturer is making a serious effort to generate its own power using one of the hottest technologies out there – solar.

NIT readers may have noticed the platforms that are already in the ground at 1511 South Benjamin Avenue, home of FRC Component Products, Inc. Some of you have written to our newsroom, asking what is being installed in the large, grass field north of the main plant.

FRC, as it turns out, is embracing solar power and installing platforms that will hold solar panels. There are rows and rows of platforms already installed; most of the formerly-vacant field is now filled. Installers were on the scene Tuesday putting some final touches on the platforms, which will soon be ready for the solar panels. The installation constitutes a 500 Kilowatt ground mounted solar photovoltaic array.  FRC did not immediately return a phone call Tuesday inquiring about the project.

Installers at the scene said that the solar panels will generate quite a lot of electricity – maybe enough to power the entire plant – and that excess power will be sold back onto the main power grid. A large conduit trench was dug for the power line conduit that leads from the panels back into the plant.

According to its website, FRC Component Products, Inc. is comprised of a diverse manufacturing base that supplies many products ranging from decorated plastic components, magnetics, and illuminated panel products, to communication and navigation antennas. FRC also supplies value-added services with a wire preparation department and a Grade A paint facility that provides silkscreening and hotstamping. FRC hosts a machining facility that maintains conventional machining operations along with numeric controlled lathes, mills, and machining centers. All of these processes are backed by our engineering and test departments which support our production with state-of-the-art equipment.

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