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| One of the proposed solar farm sites, the decommissioned landfill. At the bottom left is the road crossing the San Gabriel at the east end of the park, and at bottom right is the wastewater treatment plant. The solar panels are inserted into the photo with computer graphics. |
Jim Briggs, general manager
of utilities for the city of Georgetown, is a no-nonsense kind of guy when it
comes to electricity. He wants to keep
your lights on, and he doesn’t want people calling him at the end of the month
complaining that their electric bills are too high. Mr. Briggs also wants Georgetown to invest in
more renewable energy.
“This is not just a green
thing. I’m looking at the numbers.” Two years ago Mr. Briggs discussed renewable
energy with the city council and together they set a goal that by 2030, thirty
percent of Georgetown’s electricity would be from renewable sources. Of course, shifting from fossil fuels to wind
and solar energy decreases air pollution and carbon emissions, but there are
economic reasons to make the switch as well.
Fossil fuels are not only subject to the whims of the market but are
also increasingly regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Georgetown no longer uses electricity from
coal plants, but 92% of our electricity is generated from natural gas. It is risky to be so dependent on one source
of power. Natural gas is cheap now, but as
it becomes widely used as a transportation fuel, Mr. Briggs believes the price
will shoot up. Two years ago he thought
that it would be irresponsible NOT to have renewables in the portfolio as a
hedge against rising fuel prices. He is
even more convinced today, because the price for renewable energy has dropped.
Later this month Mr. Briggs
is going to ask the city council to authorize him to negotiate contracts for
two alternative energy proposals that would push Georgetown past its goal of
30% renewable energy.
The first proposal is for a two
to five megawatt community solar farm to be located right here in
Georgetown. Two potential locations are
being studied. One is the old landfill
at the end of College Street and the other is near the Dove Springs wastewater
treatment plant. No up-front capital
expenditure by the city would be required because, for the first 6 years, the
equipment would be owned by Borrego Solar, the company that would design and
build the installation. Borrego would be
eligible for the federal tax credits for renewable energy that are not
available to municipalities. Georgetown
would agree to purchase all the electricity generated for the first 6
years. Then in the seventh year we would
have the option to purchase the entire solar array for a predetermined amount,
and harvest free electricity from the sun for the lifetime of the panels, which
could be well over thirty years.
The idea of a solar farm on a
landfill is particularly interesting. What
else can you do with an old landfill? You
can’t put houses or businesses on it, but the EPA actually encourages reuse of
“contaminated” sites for renewable energy projects. The panels would be mounted on stone and
concrete pads in such a way that the cap of the landfill is not disturbed or
penetrated. It’s like making lemonade
out of a landfill lemon.
Here is how the solar farm plan
would work for us, the consumers.
Suppose I want to reduce my carbon footprint and use solar energy but
there are big trees all around my house shading my roof. Or maybe my homeowner’s association is stuck
in the Dark Ages and doesn’t allow solar panels. Possibly I don’t have the extra cash on hand
to purchase panels. Rather than making
an expensive improvement to my house, I can contract to purchase solar
electricity from the community solar farm, without punching any holes in my own
roof. The city will even put a nametag
on my solar panels and I can go visit them any time I want. Then, if I decide to move to another town, I
can relinquish the panels and they can be assigned to another solar customer.
A two megawatt solar farm
could supply electricity for about 1400 homes.
Actually, it produces more than they would need during daylight hours,
so the solar customers would share their solar electricity with everybody else
while the sun is shining. When the sun
is not shining, the regular customers would share their natural gas and wind
electricity with the solar customers.
Everybody gets all the power they need, whenever they need it.
The electricity generated by
a community solar farm would be a few cents more expensive per kilowatt-hour
than what we currently pay for electricity, but the price is locked in for 25
years, unlike the price for natural gas electricity, which can vary from day to
day.
The second proposal that Mr.
Briggs will make to the city council is economically even more compelling. Out in sunny west Texas on 153 acres of desert,
an experienced utility-scale solar company, SunPower, can build us our own 30
megawatt solar array to deliver pollution-free electrons that are competitive
with, or even cheaper than, gas generated electricity today. No up-front costs are required for this deal
either.
Since a solar farm is not
going to run afoul of the EPA or be subject to any future carbon taxes, the
price comparison is just going to get better.
Many things could happen to natural gas over the next thirty years, but
we can be fairly confident that the sun will keep shining in west Texas.
Mr. Briggs is an old hand in
the utilities business, but he is enthusiastic about these new solar
proposals. “Economically it just makes
sense. It’s the right thing to do, and
sometimes you just have to do the right thing.”
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