With some 300 sunny days annually in Cortez, renewable solar power could provide city taxpayers with even brighter days in the future.
In a comprehensive plan, city leaders have set a goal to reduce fossil-fuel power consumption by the end of the decade in all municipal buildings by 15 percent. At a workshop Tuesday, Sept. 24, city leaders learned a solar farm adequate to reach the benchmark could cost more than $5 million.
“A rough estimate as to what the city would need to offset its energy use is 1.5, maybe 2 megawatts, for current and future power consumption,” local renewable-energy expert Todd Kearns told councilors. “Again, a very rough cost estimate for a solar-power system to cover everything is between $2 to $6 million.”
Kearns shared four possible financing options for a solar farm: a long-term lease, a lease to own agreement, purchase the system outright or a power-purchase agreement. The best option is dependent upon the city’s total renewable-energy strategy, he said.
“You can buy green power at a fixed rate for a specific time, or you can own your own system and pay for it over time,” Kearns said.
Currently, solar arrays have a lifespan of about 50 years. When questioned about the impacts of technological advances in the industry and future upgrades to a city solar system, Kearns told councilors the best time to make the leap into renewable energy is reached when that conclusion is determined.
“There’s no better time than when you decide to do it,” he said. “If you’re going to wait for technology, then you’re just going to keep waiting for technology. You’re timing will be perfect whenever you make the decision.”
Empire Electric Association general manager Neil Stephens told councilors multiple potential revenue streams exist for the city when using renewable energy, such as a solar garden.
“The goal is to get the meter to spin backwards,” Stephens said.
The city’s current annual electrical cost is about $500,000. Cost savings could occur, for example, when the city sells back more energy than it consumes through a process called net metering. Net metering allows residential and commercial customers who generate their own electricity from solar power to be compensated for feeding electricity they do not use back into the grid.
Currently, Empire Electric’s wholesale power supplier, Tri-State Generation & Transmission Association, Inc., doesn’t allow net metering, so the first hurdle is to lobby utility company leadership to reconsider its policies, said City Manager Shane Hale.
“Empire Electric has been extremely supportive of this project and this concept, and other entities, such as the Ute Mountain tribe and the school district, are also pursuing net metering, so I feel confident that together we’ve got a very strong argument to make to Tri-State,” he said.
In addition to net metering obstacles, Hale said the city would also need to analyze and scrutinize the return on investment as well as city financing options. Ideally, if everything falls into place, he would like to target 2015 for the city to install a solar farm.
“In the end, it’s got to make sense for the taxpayers,” Hale said. “We want to be green, but this is more about saving the taxpayers some green.”
A city of Cortez Comprehensive Plan calls for long-term community investments that have a positive impact and save taxpayers money. Over the past 10 years, the city has worked to reduce energy consumption and operating costs by installing energy-efficient streetlights, adding electric vehicles to its fleet, installing solar water heating to the recreation center and energizing its small scale hydro generation plant.
