2 weeks Ago By TERRY FLORES [email protected]
Grist broke down everything you need to know about the science linking global warming to extreme heat. PLEASANT PRAIRIE — The RecPlex municipal recreation facility is turning to the sun to generate its own power. The Village Board on Monday voted 3-2 to authorize its administrator to enter into negotiations with Plymouth-Wisconsin-based Arch Solar to install a $1.
67 million solar array atop the community’s 302,000-square-foot facility at 9900 Terwall Terrace in Prairie Springs Park. Arch Solar was selected in February after it submitted the lowest bid of three candidates. Under the plan, incentives of $833,739 in federal tax credits and $25,000 in Wisconsin’s Focus on Energy funds are expected to reduce project costs to $809,739.
According to the plans, the 1 megawatt system with its 1,709 solar panels would generate about 1.2 million kilowatt hours per year. The RecPlex currently uses about 6.
7 million kilowatt hours annually. Any excess power generated would be returned to the grid for credit for the electricity. Village officials said the proposed solar energy generating system has a projected savings potential of 12% to 15% annually, with $101,000 in 2026.
Combined with incentives and the energy savings, the village solar energy system would begin to pay for itself after seven years and comes with a projected return on investment of more than $4.2 million over 30 years, about the equivalent of the life of the solar panels. Andrew Holmstrom, Arch’s head of project development, said if the project were to begin next week the engineering and design phase would last about three months.
Construction would then start in August with the solar array ready to operate as early as December. “These solar panels can withstand a one-inch diameter piece of hail (traveling) at 50 miles per hour,” he said. In addition, the panels have the potential to extend the life of areas of the roof they cover, he said.
Voting in favor were trustees Dave Klimisch, Michael Pollocoff and board President John Steinbrink. Trustees James Kremer and James Kedrow cast dissenting votes. Steinbrink, the out-going president who was honored at the meeting for his 40 years of public service, said the presentation helped shed light on the project, which had been tabled at last month’s meeting.
Calling the project a “massive spend,” Kremer said he wanted more information on the RecPlex’s roofing contract, the contract with the solar energy firm and a better understanding of the village’s insurance policy coverage, in the event of fire or other potential emergency situations. “I think it’s fairly promising, but I think we need, we owe our residents to make sure we understand what the impact is going to be on the village going forward,” he said. He moved to table the discussions, but his motion was defeated 3-2.
“I think we’re making a risky bet tonight, in the short term,” Kremer said. “I hope I’m wrong.” According to Holmstrom and village administration, delaying negotiations could result in the village losing out on “domestic content” tax credit offering a 10% reimbursement for project costs, or $167,000.
The deadline for the application for the credit is Wednesday. Administration and the solar firm are expecting to complete negotiations by the deadline. Among the terms for tax credit eligibility is that the village take ownership of 5% of the materials, in this case, the solar panels that are currently being stored at the company’s warehouse.
Klimisch, the incoming board president, said he was aware of the risks, but placed his trust in village staff and the process. “In my point of view, that’s mitigated by Arch Solar’s work with roofing contractors. Our roofing contractor has worked with solar panels,” he said.
“Our insurance company has worked with roofing and solar panels. Our attorney has been looking over the contract. Our staff have been looking at this for weeks .
.. months.
This is not something that’s just starting in one hour to be finished in 36. It’s the final 36.” The RecPlex isn’t the first public building in the village to have solar power.
The new police department has solar roof panels, which are generating more electricity than expected, according to village officials. In the first few months of his administration, one of President Joe Biden’s top policy priorities has been addressing the threat of climate change—while also improving infrastructure and creating jobs to generate economic growth. Biden has stated a goal of reaching 100% pollution-free electricity by 2035, which means dramatically scaling up renewable energy production in the U.
S. To that end, Biden’s proposed American Jobs Plan would include extensive tax credits, grants, and other investments in clean energy.One of the potential beneficiaries of this focus is the solar power industry, which is seeing rapid growth as the costs associated with solar decline.
For many years, solar power was too expensive to be adopted at scale as a major source of energy production, but this has changed in recent years.One of the biggest reasons for the decline in costs has been technological innovation. Solar technology has become more reliable and more efficient over time, which lowers the cost of generating energy.
As those costs decrease, adoption becomes more common, which allows solar cell manufacturers to achieve economies of scale and lower prices even further.Government support has also been a major factor: billions in federal investment for renewables during the Great Recession helped spur the technological advances seen in the last decade, and the federal government—along with many states and localities—has long offered tax breaks and other incentives to subsidize household solar adoption.These factors reached an inflection point in the mid-2000s, and solar production in the U.
S. has been growing exponentially ever since. In 2006, solar generated around 507,000 megawatthours of energy and represented .
01% of U.S. energy generated by the electric power industry.
By 2019, solar thermal and photovoltaic accounted for 71,936,822 megawatthours—around 140 times more than in 2006—to represent 1.74% of total. Solar is still a relatively small part of the U.
S.’s overall energy mix but will become an increasingly significant source as solar production continues to accelerate—particularly if the Biden Administration’s climate policies and clean energy investments come to pass. For now, however, renewables overall (17.
7% of total electricity generation) still lag behind natural gas (38.4%), coal (23.4%), and nuclear (19.
6%). Within the renewable category, solar (9.9% of renewable production) trails wind (40.
6%) and hydroelectric (39.5%). Despite its small but growing role in overall U.
S. energy production, solar is a major part of the energy mix in a number of states. The undisputed leader of these states is California, which leads all others both by total solar energy production and the share of electricity derived from solar.
California’s total solar energy production is nearly four times that of the runner-up state, North Carolina. Many of the market factors that have made solar more popular nationwide hold in California, too, but the Golden State also has geographic features and a political climate that have made it a solar leader. In terms of geography, California is one of the U.
S. states with the highest levels of insolation , or exposure to the sun. Insolation is a factor for many other leading states for solar production, including Sun Belt locations like Texas, Southwestern states Nevada and Arizona, and Southeastern states North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.
Politically, California’s policymakers have created an environment that all but guarantees heavy reliance on solar energy. For instance, California has one of the most ambitious renewable portfolio standards of any U.S.
state, with a goal of generating 60% of energy from renewables by 2030 and 100% of energy from renewables by 2045. Additionally, in 2020, the state began requiring most new homes to include rooftop solar panels.To find the states where solar production is highest, researchers at Commodity.
com used data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Electricity Power Data .
States were ranked by annual solar production for electric power (in megawatthours) for 2019. The researchers also calculated the year-over-year change in total solar energy production from 2018–2019, as well as what percentage of total energy production and renewable energy production solar accounts for.Here are the states producing the most solar energy.
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