MARION – Marion Mayor Mike Absher and the city council last week tentatively approved a bid from Solential Energy in Carmel, Ind. to provide solar power for the city’s wastewater treatment facility and water plant in an effort to save on energy costs.
The wastewater treatment facility is on South Van Buren Street and the water plant is on North Madison Street.
Construction of solar panels will get underway this fall at the two sites with a target for completion next summer.
As part of the deal, the city will lease the grounds for a 25-year period to Solential Energy in return for a fixed rate of 4.76 cents per kilowatt hour used.
By comparison, if the city had to purchase the solar panels outright, it would cost about $4.5 million to build.
“There is absolutely no capital investment on the part of the city,” Absher said. “We’re simply leasing the land to the investor and then we buy the power from them. It’s going to take several weeks for the engineers to do their due diligence before construction can begin, but we’re hoping it can be in service within a year.”
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Jeff Haarmann, managing partner with Affordable Gas & Electric in Mount Vernon, and Ross Calliott, vice president of Operations, are Marion’s energy consultants. They help the city manage its electric supply rates. It was their firm that solicited the solar bids for Marion.
Haarmann said that because the federal government is providing financial incentives for municipalities to switch to solar power, it makes perfect sense to take that option.
“Especially with energy rates as high as they are today, and I don’t see those rates doing anything but escalating in the years ahead,” he said.
Haarmann pointed to Carbondale as an example of a Southern Illinois community that has bought into the solar panels option at its wastewater treatment facility.
What makes Marion unique is that solar panels will be affixed to a pontoon at the water plant, a floating energy source if you will.
“It’s pretty cool actually, especially for Southern Illinois. I don’t know of anyone else who is doing this,” Haarmann said.
Marion has chosen the solar work to be done on its wastewater treatment and water plants because they are the biggest consumers of energy within the city. The installation of solar panels will allow the facilities to draw power from the sun during the day hours, yet still stay connected to the grid. There are no added risks for power outages. Altogether, about 90% of the wastewater treatment facility’s energy needs will be met by solar rays.
Absher said the estimated savings to the city in energy costs over the 25-year lease is about $5.6 million. The actual volume of production of solar energy is 3.4 million kilowatt hours per year. By comparison, the average …….