Former DeConna Ice Cream President Vince DeConna had a sunny celebration for his 70th birthday.
The company unveiled a new solar energy system at its Marion County facility during a ribbon-cutting ceremony recently. The new system will provide the three-generation, family-owned business that supplies ice cream across the Eastern United States with thousands of solar panels totaling 794 kW of ground-mounted capacity.
Nick DeConna, president of the company, said the change will affect their operation. “It just improves our efficiency, gives us a mindset of what else we can do.”
The ribbon-cutting ceremony drew employees from DeConna Ice Cream, local government officials, media representatives, and PPM Solar staff, who designed and installed the system. The event included lunch, speeches by the PPM Solar directors, and, after cutting the red ribbon, both teams sang “Happy Birthday” to Vince DeConna.
Jason Gonos, a director at PPM Solar who attended the event, said there are a lot of untrue things being said about solar energy. In his view, solar energy is the future since it is the fastest deployable form of energy right now, and businesses that add solar panels will save a lot of money.
“For this company specifically, we expect a 50 to 80% reduction on their electric bills,” Gonos said.
The project installed by PPM Solar over the past year cost $1.4 million. One of PPM Solar’s directors, Alex Khokhlov, said in his speech that the project will save about $4 million over its lifetime. The construction was completed in less than a year, and it will generate benefits for the company and the environment for 30 years.
The company began exploring solar options in early 2024. “We thought it was a good opportunity to do something good for the environment and also save money for the business, each month with our electric bill,” said DeConna. “It just improves our efficiency.”
DeConna also explained his mindset for the future, which is to maintain product quality while improving processes.
“As we move into the future, it is important that we want to do things in a more sustainable and renewable way,” he said. “We have also looked into other ways we can improve our package, making it better for the environment, and making a cleaner product.”
DeConna said solar power is not only a measure of environmental impact on the company's finances; he is also extremely excited about how solar energy will help the family business deliver its ice cream to customers.
Marion County commissioners have also begun to formally address the growing presence of solar energy in the rural region, which is seen as a positive.
During the Nov. 4 Marion County Commission meeting, one of the two public hearings was held to develop standards for solar energy facilities in farmland-zoned areas, and commission members expressed some concerns about the innovation.
“I think what we’re saying is that we want to be really careful to make it to save our farms,” said Commissioner Carl Zalak, III. “That’s the bottom line, to save our farmland and not to turn them into alternative energy facilities.”
They will continue at the Dec. 2 Marion County Board of County Commissioners meeting, where the Marion County Land Development Code will be discussed, and the solar energy facilities item will again be brought before the commission for its second and final public hearing.