By JOHN E. WEARE
KAB
After years of planning, Alliance will add solar power from a local source to its energy portfolio as the project west of town nears completion.
Interconnection Systems Incorporated (ISI) began building a solar farm this past spring for Sandhills Solar on 56 acres of land leased from the City of Alliance. The arrays of panels will be capable of generating 7.8 megawatts of electricity when operating at 100 percent City Electric Superintendent Kirby Bridge explained. On a regular day, he added, the city uses 15-16 Mw. “The big part of this I like, we pay the same price for the next 25 years with a raise of .001 percent a year,” he said.
Adding this much renewable energy from the sun, harvested here in Box Butte County, is exciting. I applaud our city leadership for “going green” and cutting down on the amount of electricity we will use that has been generated from fossil fuels.
The solar farm, built at the property that houses the municipal well field, turned out about the same as expected from the planning stage a couple years ago, probably with the exception of updated equipment and technology. Kirby said the last of the construction is being completed as ISI waits for the last main breaker that ties it into the City’s overhead power line. He said the breaker should ship the end or March with installation a couple weeks after that. The array could come online the first part of May at the earliest or possibly run into June before they energize it, he said.
The City’s investment has been relatively minor compared to the cost if they were to build and operate their own facility. Kirby said his crews rebuilt the mile or so of line along Country Club Road putting the distribution line on top and transmission line on bottom. “We built it all ourselves”, he said, “and finished in October.”
Some long-term City aspirations never come to fruition or face a long list of hurdles to become reality. In this case, Kirby commented, “”It has home pretty smoothly: zoning through the county went smooth, pretty flat site – location is perfect. You really can’t see it from the road (and we’re) still getting benefits from solar.”
Commercial, industrial and residential electric customers will not notice a difference as the solar power flows into our grid. Kirby said it is supposed to be seamless, noting the City’s load management will not change and the power Alliance does not use from the solar farm will be shipped to someone else.
Embracing renewable energy at the municipal level sets a good example for our community’s residents. Sandhills solar is serving that demand as they are building 16 solar farms including projects in Gering and Sidney. Electricity generated is distributed through the Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska.