City council approves solar power installation agreement

Posted: 1:01 pm, December 17, 2015 by Editor Skye Pratt

–At Tuesday night’s Paso Robles City Council meeting, the council passed a motion that will allow the implementations of new solar power installations at various city sites.

Sun Edison will own, install and maintain the solar installations at its own expense, without any upfront capital contribution from the city. The city has the opportunity to achieve significant financial savings by entering into the agreement, as well as to use better environmental technology for power generation.

The properties being considered for solar installations are City Hall, Centennial Park, the Paso Robles Airport, and Sherwood Park.

The savings will commence as soon as the installations are complete and producing power. Sun Edison makes money by selling the power to the city, which offsets cost of installations.

There are government incentives that will affect the cost of the energy purchased. Project incentives ends in 2016, and if the solar infrastructure is not in place before the end of the 2016, incentives will no longer be available. This was one of the key reasons that the council decided to expedite the decision. The agreement will lock the city into a fixed rate for 20 years, however the city will be able to make amendments to the agreement at any time. The city will also have the option to buy the infrastructure at any time during the term.

The solar project projects a first year savings of $158,106, and a 20-year projected savings of $9,564,254.