Solar garden launch days away as community-owned project is set to tie into the grid
By Timothy Schafer
The city’s Community Solar Garden Project will miss the summer solstice by four days — the longest day of the year — when it finally comes online in two weeks and connects to the grid.
Nelson Hydro’s two-year odyssey into the uncharted land of municipal solar-powered energy generation is set to move into production June 24 — heralded with an opening event — when the city-owned utility connects its garden of panels to the grid and the juices begin to flow.
The system had been constructed by November, 2016, said Carmen Proctor, EcoSave program coordinator, but there was not enough time to connect it to the grid before snow fell, so the utility company had to wait until spring to do so.
Despite the delay the city should be one of the first in Canada to set up a municipal solar system
“It is always nice to be the first to spearhead something new, and something that people find value in, (but) the greatest success, in my opinion, is the wide range of community investors involved and also that other communities are going to be offering similar projects to their residents,” she said.
The investors include renters, homeowners, business owners, several co-ops, churches, the school district — who has allocated a panel to each school and office buildings that are within the Nelson Hydro territory — and Selkirk College, said Proctor.
“And the best part is that they all came to us and invested,” she said. “There was no banging on doors … to encourage participation. This tells me that this wide range of community was genuinely interested in supporting renewable energy in our community.”
On the eve of launching the solar panel system is fully subscribed. There were some additional panels installed for the purpose of having some extra generation in case any panels or inverters experienced any operational issues, Proctor explained.
However, there is no waiting list at this time, she added, but the utility may release some additional panels that Nelson Hydro customers could invest in — a proposition that may materialize by the end of June.
“There are no current plans of adding more panels or building a second system,” she said. “This may happen in the future, but we want to see how this one goes first.”
On the road again
At a Nov. 16, 2015 special meeting city council authorized the Bonnington Generating Station lands as the site for the solar garden. Proctor said 240 panels on site would “fully utilize” the one site at the Bonnington location — where Nelson Hydro currently generates hydro electricity.
Nelson Hydro general manager Alex Love said the highest cost to each customer was anticipated to be $923.45 per panel — a figure approved by the BC Utilities Commission. The pre-sales deposit fee was $500 per panel.
The city levies fees and charges on the project being revenue neutral as they are set at an amount that recovers the associated cost of providing the service.
At the beginning of 2016 much of the needed equipment was purchased — panels, micro-inverters and monitoring equipment — and eventually received, paving the way for the start of construction of the solar panel field.
Although the Bonnington location contained three potential sites for building the solar array, the first site chosen ended up having a water line that went through it making it unusable.
Sun shines on the community
The project costs — equipment and installation — for the project were expected to be $238,389, up almost $27,000 from the 2016 forecast budget for the 50 kW array.
However, program development, structural and civil engineering, and electrical engineering design and solar analysis add over $60,000 to the cost, bumping the budget to $301,628.
Funding sources for the project include a $35,000 contribution from BullFrog Power, $25,000 from Nelson Hydro and customer buy-in of $221,628 (240 panels at $923.45 each).
In addition, a funding grant for $20,000 was added to the contributions.
Solar for everyone
In the community solar garden — a centralized solar panel array installation — people can choose to subscribe to a portion of the solar array and receive a credit on their utility bill in proportion to investment, doing their part for the environment by using green energy.
The type of project Nelson Hydro has created makes solar accessible to those who wouldn’t otherwise be able to access it such as: renters; those with unsuitable rooftops; and those who cannot afford an installation on their own.
The credit would be measured in kilowatt hours, based on the current electricity rate, so the value of the credit will increase as the rate goes up.
Twenty-five year contracts are set up for customers to receive a solar credit on their Nelson Hydro bill on an annual basis in proportion to their investment.
