County Decides to Pull Plug on Solar Power Idea
The county commissioners’ hope of having a building powered by solar energy has been dashed by the federal government’s dwindling supply of energy credits.
The county commissioners’ hope of having a building powered by solar energy has been dashed by the federal government’s dwindling supply of energy credits.
The idea of using an array of solar panels to power the Geauga County Department of Emergency Services was initiated last year in attempt to save on electricity costs.
County Administrator David Lair said Bold Alternatives, a Cleveland-based solar power company, could have built the solar panels adjacent to the DES building on Merritt Road in Claridon Township.
Bold Alternatives was one of two companies that responded to a request for a proposal (RFP) approved by the commissioners last year. The other firm did not meet the requirements contained in the commissioners’ RFP, Lair said.
Under a “power purchase agreement,” the county was looking at buying solar-generated electricity at a discounted rate for several years from the company’s solar array, he said.
The proposed discount would have been about 1 cent per kilowatt-hour, but was based on the amount of energy credits Bold Alternatives thought it could get from the federal government, Lair explained.
Energy credits provide solar companies with tax write-offs, which he said are an incentive for the companies to build solar array projects and recover their investment within a few years.
The proposal “was predicated on the cost of installing the solar array and the energy credits Bold Alternatives thought it could get,” Lair said.
The company initially believed it could recover its investment in about seven to 10 years, after which the solar panels would become the property of the county, he said.
But that won’t happen.
“What we didn’t count on is that those energy credits are starting to go away, so that would mean stretching out the number of years they (Bold Alternatives) would need to get an adequate return on their investment,” Lair said.
Based on the decline in energy credits, the company began looking at retaining ownership of the energy panels for 15 to 20 years before it could recover its investment and transfer ownership to the county, he said.
After 20 years, however, a key piece of equipment in a solar panel array, the inverter, might begin to wear out, Lair added.
“So, even if we would save some money in that time, after 20 years when it becomes the county’s property, it might not pay us to turn around and replace the inverter, assuming it is still available for this,” Lair said. “It (the inverter) might not be upgradable because technology changes all the time and we might not find this was a good deal.”
In addition, Lair said he realizes Bold Alternatives and other similar companies must stay “financially healthy” by doing whatever is necessary to make sure they recover the cost of erecting, maintaining and operating solar panels over several years.
Therefore, the county has abandoned the plan.
“This is too bad because, if this could have been proven successful for the emergency services building, then we would have been looking to do to this in other (county building) locations,” Lair said.
The solar panel array would have been similar, but larger than the solar panels that power the Fairmont Minerals corporate headquarters on state Route 44 south of Chardon, he added.
