The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Adding $33K to the annual electric bill
By Mark Reaman
While acknowledging that Colorado TABOR (Taxpayer Bill of Rights) law doesn’t allow the town council to commit to spending tax money more than a year out, the Crested Butte town council on March 3 gave the Gunnison County Electric Association (GCEA) a philosophical 10-year commitment to purchase so-called Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) from the planned solar farm south of town by Baxter Gulch trailhead. That commitment, estimated to be approximately $33,000 a year in addition to its base electricity costs, will help give the GCEA confidence the proposed 1.1 megawatt Oh Be Joyful solar array located on town-owned property, will not cost its general membership money to subsidize the project.
In a memo to the council, Crested Butte sustainability coordinator Dannah Leeman said the town has been “collaborating with the GCEA and project contractor Outshine Solar over the last five to six years to identify a suitable parcel and implement the project’s construction. The project has been slow to implement because of siting and permitting delays and financial uncertainties.”
GCEA strategy execution specialist Matt Feier said the selling of the energy credits are needed since the solar farm is not a break-even project. He said the $33,000 in RECs would add about 20% to the town’s most recent annual electric bill of $173,105 and represent about 58% of the solar farm’s production. He said four other North Valley entities are considering purchasing RECs to make the solar project a reality.
“We have all been working on this since 2020 so to move forward, the GCEA board would like at least a 10-year commitment from the council (to purchase the energy credits) with the understanding it can’t commit future funds from future councils,” said Feier. “We are looking for that general support as we go into construction negotiations.”
Crested Butte town manager Dara MacDonald said the town has supported the idea of the solar farm in that location for quite a while but said she was “a little more torn” about the project since GCEA’s wholesale energy supplier Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association has shifted its stance and become much more aggressive in moving toward renewable energy source to supply GCEA power.
Mayor Ian Billick noted that even if Tri-State gets to its commitment of having 80% of its energy supply be renewable by 2030, the solar farm gets the town close to 100% renewable for electricity which he described as being appropriately aggressive.
Councilmember John O’Neal brought up the major deficiency of the location given there is a big hill (The Bench) directly to the west of the proposed location.
“No site is perfect,” admitted Feier. “But it is very close to one of our four substations and that is a big advantage. Other locations have issues with being far away from the substations or having to deal with sage grouse protection issues. It is not ideal with that mountain there, but it is estimated that reduces potential production by about 7%.”
Councilmember Anna Fenerty asked about the relatively small scale of the project and whether it was worth doing especially given there are other community uses like parking or housing that could possibly go on the property.
Feier explained that the GCEA’s current contract with Tri-State only allows them to generate up to 5% of its own power. He said the recently engaged Taylor Dam hydro project gets the GCEA to about 3% while the solar farm would get the GCEA close to the remaining 5% cap.
About eight members of the Gunnison Valley Climate Crisis Coalition showed up to support the project.
“We appreciate what the town has done with climate change,” said Jeff Delaney with GV3C. “Now more than ever we need to take action at a local level. We encourage the town partnership with the Oh Be Joyful solar array.”
“I’m not overly enthusiastic but can support it,” said Fenerty.
“I too can support it but feel a bit like Anna,” said councilmember Gabi Prochaska. “It’s small so I wonder if the impact we’re having is that great. The environmental impact seems small.”
“Looking at it from an opportunity cost standpoint, can that $33,000 be better spent elsewhere on other climate mitigation measures,” asked Billick.
MacDonald said the town spends about $100,000 a year retrofitting things like windows to be more climate friendly but it probably isn’t as impactful as the solar generation. Another example she cited was that the town has spent about $100,000 each of the past several years on the GreenDeed program helping owners of deed restricted homes with home improvements to improve efficiency, add solar panels and electrify appliances. “This program has many great benefits, including GHG reduction, but the emissions reduction of the solar farm will far outpace the emissions reductions we see with the GreenDeed program,” she said.
O’Neal described his stance as a little lukewarm as well.
“I’m a strong yes,” countered Billick. “Especially given the symbolism it projects given the current state of the world.”
Even with the stated lukewarm responses, council all agreed to direct staff to proceed with the 10-year commitment to GCEA to purchase RECs with the caveat it cannot officially make such a long-term commitment under Colorado law.