Town Council formally agrees to lease property for solar farm

Not the perfect site but it will work

[ By Mark Reaman ]

The Crested Butte Town Council Monday unanimously approved a 30-year lease with two potential five-year extensions for a portion of the Avalanche Park property south of town to be used for a solar farm. The solar array will take up between four and five acres of the property near the current Baxter Gulch trailhead and will produce one mega-watt (1 MW) of energy.

The council’s contract will be with Outshine Energy of Denver, which will then sell the power to the Gunnison County Electric Association at a fixed price for at least the next three decades. Details of that power purchase agreement are still being worked out and if no agreement is reached within 18 months, the town can exit the lease with Outshine.

Crested Butte will receive $10 per year for the lease. It will also purchase renewable energy credits of the array, which is expected to be anywhere between $5,300 and $21,000 annually to offset its municipal accounts.

The town will also move the current Baxter Gulch trailhead and thin the beetle-infested stand of trees between the solar farm and highway, as well as build avalanche mitigation mounds to protect the solar panels.

“There is still some work to be done with the exact layout and the moving of the trailhead,” town planner Mel Yemma told the council.

Crested Butte citizen Jim Starr voiced some concerns about the financial elements of the agreement. He felt the town should be getting more money for providing the land. And he expressed some concern about the location, due to the shading that comes from Gibson’s Ridge.

“I applaud the effort to develop a local solar array but I can’t think of a location worse than this one with the shade. It confines the solar that can be collected,” Starr said.

Outshine owner and lead partner Taylor Henderson agreed the site wasn’t perfect but said it would work. “Ideally you would place a solar array on a sunny, flat piece of property with no critters, right next to an electric substation,” he said. “But in looking at the site we analyzed the impact of Gibson’s Ridge and there are some times in the afternoon solar collection will not be effective. The shadow is an issue but elevation makes up for it. There is opportunity given the location so close to the GCEA substation.”

Starr said the town should get much more compensation than $10 per year for providing the acreage, especially if it is covering the cost of moving the trailhead and thinning the trees. He suggested putting a clause in the lease to negotiate with Outshine in 10 years. “The price of electricity and solar could be very different then,” he said. “I think the town is giving away a lot here and more could be done to protect the taxpayer. Things could change a lot over the next 30 or 40 years.”

Henderson said his contract with GCEA would establish a fixed price for the energy generated by the site. “It’s a two-way possibility. The price could go way up or it could go way down. No one can predict what will happen in the future. Not everything is perfect with this but it has the potential to be a really good project.”

Yemma reminded the council that the project will help accomplish stated goals within the town’s Climate Action Plan.
“The town has looked at other potential opportunities available with that land,” said council member Mona Merrill. “It seems like the solar array is the preference that works best.”

“We are excited to work with you all,” said Henderson.

“We feel confident it will be a good project for all of our members and town,” added Matt Feier of the GCEA.

The 1 MW of energy produced by the solar array is roughly twice the amount Crested Butte uses for its municipal accounts. If the town were to offset all of its accounts with solar energy, the town would exceed its five-year goal of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent.

Construction of the actual solar array will occur in 2022 with some site preparation work slated for 2021. The current Baxter Gulch trailhead will remain open until a new one is situated.