LOGAN – On the advice of local green energy advocates, the members of the Logan Municipal Council have requested that the city launch a study investigating the feasibility of creating a solar farm within the city’s limits.
The purpose of that hypothetical solar array facility with battery storage capacity, according to Council Chair Jeanne Simmonds, would be to add not less than 15 mega-watts of electrical power to Logan’s energy portfolio.
Although the feasibility study was suggested by Simmonds, council members Mike Johnson, Amy Anderson and Mark Anderson all strongly concurred with the need for such an inquiry.
After consulting with Mayor Holly Daines and Mark Montgomery, the director of Logan Light & Power, as to whether a three-month period was sufficient to complete the study, the council set a tentative target date of Tuesday, July 15 to review its findings.
The requested feasibility study came in the wake of a March 4 joint proposal that the city consider construction of a 100-acre in-house solar facility advanced by Tyson Godfrey, the chair of the city’s Renewable Energy and Sustainability Advisory Board (RESAB), and Nathanael Weidler, the chair of the Logan Light & Power Board.
Logan Light & Power now provides energy to city residents through a combination of both local generation and purchases on the open energy market. Fossil fuels account for about 64 percent of that capacity, while renewable sources add 22 percent and market purchases cover 14 percent of city needs.
But two coal-fired resources (the Sunnyside and Hunter plants) are retiring over the next seven years, with a combined loss of 18 mega-watts of power or about 32 percent of Logan’s base load capacity.
By 2026, Godfrey and Weidler estimated that Logan’s power needs will require about 56 mega-watts of base load – that is, everyday continuous capacity – as well as 103 mega-watts of peak load.
The estimated price tag of the 20- to 30-mega- watt solar array suggested by Godfrey and Weidler would be $60 million, they acknowledged during discussion of their proposal at the last gathering of the municipal council.
The estimated cost of the solar facility proposed by Simmonds’ feasibility study would likely be more modest, given its smaller capacity.
But city officials may not be able to count on federal assistance in meeting even those reduced costs.
President Donald Trump recently issued an executive order suspending funding disbursements for so-called green energy projects from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).
This directive halts grants, loans, contracts and other financial incentives tied to clean energy initiatives.
Federal agencies are now required to review these programs to ensure alignment with the administration’s pro-fossil fuel energy policies before resuming funding.