The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
You aren’t doing it for the money…
The Crested Butte Town Council on Monday took a small, primarily symbolic step toward local alternative energy generation by approving collaboration with the local electric co-op to install a small solar array on the town clarifier building near the bus barn on the northeast edge of town.
Twenty solar panels will be installed on the building, which was built with solar orientation in mind. The Gunnison County Electric Association will then lease each panel to interested individuals who want to get the power generated from the photovoltaic panels.
“You’re not doing it to make any money,” admitted GCEA chief operations officer Roger Grogg to the council. “The cost to lease a panel will be $1,284. After 20 years, we estimate you’ll be about $14 ahead. The people who decide to participate will probably make the choice because it is the right thing to do. It will be because it is good for the environment.”
Grogg explained that the GCEA board agreed to pick up the insurance and property taxes associated with the solar array. He also explained that GCEA power supplier Tri-State would charge the cooperative for the power generated from the solar power project.
“GCEA buys all its power from Tri-State. Under our ‘all power agreement’ with Tri-State, we are allowed to generate 5 percent on our own but if we redistribute power like this project will do, we have to pay Tri-State,” Grogg said.
“If you put a panel on your house, you’d be a lot better off,” Grogg continued. “You’d save more money that way. This project is so small it’s considered more of a solar pot than a solar garden. All 20 panels combined will generate 657 kilowatt hours per month. Yet a normal house uses more than 700 kilowatt hours in just one month.”
“This is very much a pilot program,” said Crested Butte building and zoning director Bob Gillie. “If it takes off, we can expand the number of panels on this roof or take it to other areas of town. It’s the first step in what could eventually be a bigger program.”
“You need to remember the best way to save energy is through conservation,” said councilperson Glenn Michel. “Changing a light bulb is almost as effective as these panels. But it is a step.”
Each panel would be leased for 20 years. The entire array will be metered and the GCEA member would receive a bill credit based on the percentage of the array’s production leased by the member. The idea of locally generated solar power was appealing to the council members.
Councilman Jim Schmidt expressed concern that Tri-State was taking a significant cut of the energy generated. But in the end, the council agreed unanimously that it was a good first step. The small solar garden should be planted on the clarifier building sometime this spring.
