New solar farms in Weld come online, can provide power for 1,300 homes
Jan. 16-- Greeley Tribune (CO)
Beyond more jobs and additional development dollars in Weld County, two new solar facilities near Severance and Greeley will bring customers of Poudre Valley Rural Electric Association more stable energy for homes and businesses. The association's new facilities -- 150 acres or the size of 48 football fields -- came online this month and will provide a renewable energy source for customers throughout Weld, Larimer and Boulder counties. PVREA serves more than 38,000 consumer-members across the three counties. In total, the two farms cost approximately $7 million to build out. The projects took three months to complete and were designed to maximize the energy output during the early morning and late afternoon hours. While the new facilities won't drive down electric costs for members, it will provide power for an additional 1,300 homes annually and help the cooperative hedge against future price hikes. The facilities are directly tied to the cooperative's distribution system, which provides customers with a mix of local power from renewable and traditional energy sources. PVREA signed a purchase power agreement with Tennessee-based Silicon Ranch Corporation to develop the Skylark and Valley View Solar facilities. Silicon Ranch is one of the top 15 solar operators in the country, according to a release from PVREA. The corporation will own the projects for their 20-year lifespan and coordinate with the project's stakeholders throughout Weld County, including Upstate Colorado Economic Development, the Greeley City Council, the Weld County Board of County Commissioners and local city and county planning departments. Phoenix-based McCarthy Building Companies, one of the largest American-owned construction firms, was contracted to build the facilities. They hired 160 local workers from across northern Colorado for the facilities' construction. The eight-megawatt facilities are 12 times larger than the Cooperative's second community solar farm that came online a year ago. "This project is a milestone for Poudre Valley REA," PVREA CEO Jeff Wadsworth said in a news release from the association. "The Skylark and Valley View Solar facilities are significantly larger and add another local, renewable energy source." Between the new facilities and the cooperative's other renewable energy sources -- including Carter Lake Hydropower, two community solar farms and several hundred members with individual Photovoltaic solar systems -- members receive 28 percent of their energy from renewable sources. That 28 percent also includes renewable energy generated by the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, Inc. "We're pleased to be providing renewable energy to our members that maintains reliability, makes economic sense and conserves natural resources," Wadsworth said in the release. PVREA began looking for the project sites in 2014, with the goal of providing more energy stability for the cooperative's members. After the cooperative's board of director approved plans, Silicon Ranch went ahead looking for sites that would fit within PVREA's parameters. "(The two facilities) were strategically located really to provide additional benefit to their utility and their members," said Matt Beasley, media representative for Silicon Ranch. The cooperative works to find sites that fit three main parameters: that the site allow them to maintain reliability for the distribution system, that it make economic sense for the membership and that it allow them to be aware and respectful of natural resources. "All three of those considerations were met and that's kind of what drove it forward," said David White, member relations manager for PVREA. For the first criteria, White stressed -- despite comments from Weld County Commissioner Barbara Kirkmeyer that solar farms could be placed anywhere there's sun at the commissioner's Dec. 18 meeting -- the location had to be close to substations that allows the cooperative to maintain a certain amount of voltage for power reliability. "That doesn't really hold true," White said. The commissioners have discussed a proposed ordinance that would limit solar farming to industrially zoned land instead of the agriculturally zoned land many companies currently occupy. Beasley noted the projects, with the commissioners as stakeholders, were zoned for agricultural uses. The farther away a solar farm is from a substation, the more expensive it is for the company and their customers to wire it to a substation. "It costs a considerable amount of capital to build lines from the substation," White said. Solar is particularly tricky because the distribution of energy in the network can fluctuate based on cloud coverage, which can affect the energy output very quickly. "Solar is very intermittent," he said. "There are a lot of considerations so that the voltage can be maintained." Economically, the sites made sense as the price of solar materials and panels has fallen in recent months. "The solar is a renewable resource, so we found that to be very conserving of natural resources," White said.
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