LOGAN – A feasibility study of the possibility of creating of a local solar array left members of the Logan Municipal Council with more questions than answers following their regular meeting on July 15.
Back in March, Council Chair Jeannie Simmonds requested that city officials develop a study of the feasibility of creating a solar array with the capacity to deliver 15 mega-watts of energy, including battery storage, at a location or locations within Logan city limits.
Instead of the hoped for “yes or no” answer, the council members on Tuesday were given a range of options to consider by Mark Montgomery, the director of Logan Light & Power.
Those options included installing solar panels atop the sewer lagoons off State Road 30; installing solar panels on a scattered variety of other city owned properties and rooftops; continuing coordination with the Utah Associated Municipal Power System; investigating power purchase agreements with commercial solar suppliers; exploring city-owned battery storage or power purchase agreements; and continuing with the city’s current “all of the above” approach to power policy.
Each of those options would come with their own set of complications, Montgomery added.
Simmonds seemed inclined to opt for installing solar panels on the city sewer lagoons, praising the idea of getting dual use out of those areas and sending a message indicating that the city is moving forward on the renewable energy front.
While Mayor Holly Daines acknowledged that the idea of floating solar panels was feasible, she cautioned that the cost of pursuing that option might be problematic.
The second option – scattering smaller solar arrays on rooftops and other properties – offers an uncertain return on city investments, according to Montgomery, especially since that option would require costly new transmission lines.
When council member Mike Johnson queried whether solar panels could be installed “behind the meter,” Montgomery agreed that was possible. That would involve installing solar arrays in the areas of one of Logan’s existing electrical substations, thus avoiding the need for new transmission lines.
Montgomery agreed that alternative would be possible in the areas of Substation 7 and another Substation site along 1800 South, but added that neither of those areas had enough space for a 15 mega-watt solar array.
None of the other options – including commercial power purchases and continued coordination with UAMPS – seems to offer any real solutions to Simmonds’ desired outcome of clean, home-grown power.
The Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems is a non-profit, inter-local agency that provides wholesale electric energy services to community-owned power systems in the Intermountain West. UAMPS serves 50 members across Utah, Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico and Wyoming.
Power purchase agreements are common arrangements for solar energy systems where a commercial company installs and maintains solar panels and the city agrees to purchase the electricity produced by those panels at a predetermined rate.
Earlier in Tuesday’s meeting, Utah State University professor Patrick Belmont delivered another of his impromptu attempts to guilt trip council members over previous investments in power produced by fossil fuels.
In his self-appointed role as the city’s “climate conscience,” Belmont quoted a statement from Catholic bishops labeling climate change as an existential threat to the future.
With that admonition seemingly in mind, Simmonds urged other council members to at least vote to “accept” Montgomery’s report, but parliamentary procedures precluded even that limited response.
Logan Light & Power now provides energy to city residents and businesses through a combination of both local generation and open market purchases. 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.
Facing the loss of two coal-fired power plants that deliver 18 mega-watts of base load power over the next seven years, Logan officials have responded with an “all-of-the-above” approach to future power needs.
Recent additions to that approach include a 25-year, $206 million contract with a power plant in Millard County that would satisfy the city’s projected peak power requirements; and the purchase of 15 mega-watts of base load power from the Power County Power Project in Idaho,
Like Belmont, local environmentalists have been vocal in their opposition to those plans, equating additional city investments in fossil fuels to climate change denial.