Exelon has one of the nation’s largest, cleanest, lowest-cost power generation fleets. Customers count on them daily for reliable, efficient energy production and for their environmental stewardship. Their growing renewable portfolio has made them the 12th largest wind producer and the 7th largest solar producer in the US. In addition, they own and operate two hydroelectric power plants along the Susquehanna River in Maryland and Pennsylvania.
Exelon went from owning zero to 36 wind projects in one fell swoop when they purchased John Deere Renewables. We helped them launch Exelon Wind at their first American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) conference and developed informative tools for management to get up to speed—from project fact sheets to guides to a brochure of important government and media contacts in each state.
When Exelon built Exelon City Solar, the largest urban solar power plant in the United States, it wanted to build an understanding of its direct and indirect benefits to the community. We developed a visitor center display that translates the technical talk of “megawatts” and “azimuth angle” into plain language that the public and school children could relate to. So when we talked about output from the facility’s 32,292 solar photovoltaic (PV) panels, we said that they generate enough clean, reliable electricity to power up to 1,500 homes per year. And that the clean energy generated by Exelon City Solar displaces more than 30 million pounds of greenhouse gas emissions per year—the equivalent of taking more than 2,500 cars off the road or planting 3,200 acres of forest. These easy-to-relate-to facts brought the benefits home to visitors.
When Exelon upgraded its visitor center at the Conowingo Dam to an LEED-certified facility, they turned to us to help them create a memorable, educational experience for visitors. To that end, we created an interpretive display that highlights the important role hydroelectricity plays as a renewable, clean energy source. The history of the dam includes stories and images about fierce storms the dam withstood, the return of the shad population and Exelon’s stewardship of the wildlife habitats along the Lower Susquehanna River. Several years later, Exelon asked us to do a similar project for their remodeled Muddy Run facility.
