County considering solar power for Secondary Roads building

Johnson County’s new Secondary Roads Facility is poised to be equipped with a rooftop solar array that has the potential to completely power the entire building and save the county hundreds of thousands of dollars down the road.

The Johnson County Board of Supervisors discussed plans Thursday to add a large-scale array of solar panels on top of the roughly $3.6 million Secondary Roads Facility being built at 4810 Melrose Ave. The building is slated for a mid-December completion date.

Currently, the board is considering proposals made by three Iowa companies specializing in solar power — North Liberty’s Moxie Solar, Dubuque’s Eagle Point Services and Sigourney’s Atwood Electric. Outright cost estimates from the three companies range from about $320,000 to $375,000 with an annual production between 158,000 kWh and 175,000 kWh.

“I want to do solar regardless of cost; I think that’s part of our strategic plan, but I think we should take advantage of incentives to increase the return on investment,” Supervisor Janelle Rettig said.

However, the board doesn’t plan to purchase a solar array outright, but rather take advantage of a Power Purchase Agreement, which would have the county paying for the kilowatts hours produced for an agreed time frame — potentially a 10-year agreement — while the third-party vendor covers maintenance costs for the duration of the agreement. Eventually the solar array would be paid off and the county would take over ownership and the real cost savings would be felt.

A relatively unused concept in Iowa, a PPA also allows the county to take advantage of any renewable energy tax incentives, said Josh Busard, assistant planner with the county building division.

For example, a 10-year PPA agreement with Moxie Solar would show a nearly $300,000 in savings over the first 25 years.

Busard said he will gather 10-year PPA agreement documents from the three solar companies, which will be taken to the county attorney’s office to review to ensure legality.

The board is slated to reconvene on the issue at Wednesday’s informal meeting.

The main goal would be to install a solar array that would power at least 50 percent of the Secondary Roads building’s electricity use, but ideally the array would cover 75 percent of power use. That said, if the solar panels generate enough electricity, additional power could be transferred to other buildings on the Secondary Roads campus, which is all connected under a single power meter.

“We could potentially totally offset all electricity use of this building,” Busard said. “I think if this solar project was accepted, I think this would be a feather in the cap of Johnson County and just prove our commitment to sustainability and the board’s strategic plan.”

Reach Mitchell Schmidt at maschmidt@press-citizen.com or at 887-5402.