According to the office of State Rep. Jimmie Don Aycock, the city of Lometa has been awarded a grant for $488,714 for solar panels to supply power to the existing sewer treatment plant.

Contractors will install a 50kw solar panel system at the existing wastewater treatment plant to reduce the plant's utility cost up to 50 percent annually.

It is estimated the system will generate approximately 70,000kw-hours per year.

Construction will take place off of U.S. Highways 190 and 183.

Funds have been made available from appropriations for the Community Development Block Grant Program of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

This program is administered by the Office of Rural Community Affairs through the Texas Community Development Block Grant Program.

"ORCA works very hard to support the needs of rural Texas," said Aycock. "We are pleased to announce this much-needed assistance."

Charles S. Stone, ORCA's executive director, said "Rising energy costs are hitting every one hard, but especially in rural communities. Solar power and other forms of renewable energy can help small towns have more control over their energy costs."

"The cost of solar power remains relatively high," said ORCA board member Charles Butts Sr., who is originally from Lampasas County and recently retired and moved back home eight miles east of Lometa.

"But those costs are declining rapidly. This project can provide a blueprint for how other rural communities in Texas can begin to cut their energy costs."

The Hamilton County Electric Cooperative, which serves Lometa, has agreed to a netmetering arrangement in which excess power from the solar array would feed into the cooperative's grid.

The energy bill for LCRA's wastewater treatment plan would then be credited for that excess power fed into the cooperative's grid.

Funding for the Lometa project comes from unused CDBG money.