Procurement News Notice |
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| PNN | 7329 |
| Work Detail | Maplewood’s local government has already shown their support for solar energy through the solar panels fixed atop the community center roof, mounted on the ground near City Hall and installed as the awning at the Maplewood Nature Center. The local government also adopted a renewable energy ordinance in 2011 to make it easier for residents to install solar panels on their own properties. Now, through a solar energy partnership with the Metropolitan Council, Maplewood has committed to a 25-year solar garden subscription, which will offset about 25 percent of Maplewood’s existing electricity usage at city facilities. On Aug. 23, Maplewood staff joined Met Council leaders and staff from other cities in the region to celebrate their partnership, which makes possible what the Metropolitan Council called “one of the state’s largest expansions of solar energy.” Falcon Heights, Inver Grove Heights, Minneapolis, Roseville and St. Anthony Village were also among the 22 cities that bought solar subscriptions in addition to Ramsey and Hennepin counties and the Met Council itself. Other city subscribers were as far flung as Chanhassen and Hugo. Trevor Drake, a project manager at the Great Plains Institutes and a co-director of the Metro Clean Energy Resources Team (CERT), said the Met Council worked with private solar developers to facilitate the 22 subscriptions. The Met Council, Drake said, put out a single request for proposals for all interested cities, initially 31, simplifying a potentially complicated process for city staffers. Sara Smith, a Met Council sustainability manager, said the council’s RFP on behalf of many, oftentimes smaller municipalities, allowed the cities to lean on the council’s expertise and the process could serve as a model for future initiatives. As explained in a Met Council release, private companies build and maintain the solar gardens, some of which are already under construction, while subscribers pay for some of the energy generated at the gardens, providing funding to the builders. Subscribers then receive a credit on their Xcel Energy bills — they don’t draw energy directly from the gardens. Over the next 25 years, the council said smaller municipalities could look at saving roughly $30,000 on energy costs, while larger-scale subscribers could save millions of dollars. Dan Thiede, CERT communications manager, said the solar gardens will be in commuter towns circling the metro using marginal farmland. He said six acres of solar panels can collect 1 megawatt. Overall, Thiede said, the planned solar gardens will produce 35 megawatts of energy — that’s enough to power 4,000 average Minnesota homes. Local governments began asking CERT roughly two years ago about ways to use green energy, specifically solar, Thiede said. CERT approached the Met Council and they went from there. He explained that changes made to the regulation of solar energy at the state level in 2013 paved the way for the solar gardens subscriptions, and that it ought to be the largest subscriber solar garden program in the nation. According to Shann Finwall, Maplewood’s environmental planner, the city was allowed to opt into one of the community solar gardens through a lottery system, and at the June 27 city council meeting, the council authorized a 25-year community solar garden subscription agreement with Geronimo Energy and BHE Renewables. “The city’s decision to move forward with community solar included saving money, advancing our renewable energy goals and leading by example,” Finwall said. This subscription will allow Maplewood to offset 856,290 kilowatt hours of electricity, which accounts for about a quarter of the existing electricity use at city facilities. Maplewood will save one cent per kWh, which adds to a first year savings of about $8,600. After the city’s subscription expires in 25 years, the city will have saved almost $202,000. “Community solar gardens utilize acres of land so it is unlikely we will see a freestanding community solar garden in Maplewood,” Finwall said, and explained that the suburb has very little undeveloped land. He added that it is possible that Maplewood could add community solar gardens on large roof surfaces, but there is nothing in the works currently. The community solar garden Maplewood is subscribing to will be built early next year in Washington County near Scandia. In regards to possible downsides, Finwall said, “There was no upfront investment or future capital requirements. The subscriptions are transferable from one city building to another, there is no maintenance or overhead and Maplewood will help move renewable energy forward, so it is hard to find any downfalls in the city’s decision to subscribe to community solar.” |
| Country | United States , Northern America |
| Industry | Energy & Power |
| Entry Date | 15 Oct 2016 |
| Source | http://eastsidereviewnews.com/articles/2016/09/07/maplewood-subscribe-solar-gardens |
