Questions Answered at Burcham Solar Project Forum

On Monday night, a community forum was held at the Hannah Center for the planned Community Solar Project in Burcham Park. The forum, hosted by the City of East Lansing Commission on the Environment and the Meridian Township Environmental Commission, was an opportunity to provide more information on the project and to address questions, concerns, or suggestions residents may have about the solar park.

The project is a joint venture between the Lansing Board of Water and Light (BWL), the City of East Lansing, Michigan Energy Options (MEO), and the Patriot Solar Group. The purpose of community solar projects like this one is to provide a renewable energy source for “homeowners, apartment dwellers, institutions and businesses that otherwise would not have the option of solar energy,” according to John Kinch, Executive Director of MEO.

East Lansing City Manager George Lahanas stated at the beginning of the forum that this project “feels like a good fit for East Lansing.” Lahanas and Kinch, shared the results of a survey of East Lansing residents that showed 87% of those surveyed were in favor of renewable energy sources. This innovative community solar project “will put the [East Lansing/Lansing] area on the map” in terms of renewable energy, according to Kinch.

The Community Solar Project as planned consists of an array of one thousand solar panels on the northwest corner of Burcham Park. The park is located at the southwest corner of Burcham Road and Park Lake Road, across Burcham Road from Burcham Hills Retirement Community. The park is the site of a sixty-year-old landfill that has been capped with two feet of cleaned soil.

According to Kinch, this type of Brownfield contaminated site is perfect for a solar array because the array sits atop the ground on concrete ballasts and doesn’t require disruption of the soil below the two-foot point. The panels are expected to produce electricity equivalent to powering 55 houses per year.

A similar project is scheduled for Lansing after the completion of the East Lansing project, and all customers of BWL can lease a solar panel for a one-time fee of $399. A leased panel will produce 300 watts, or an estimated 367.92 kilowatt hours per year. BWL buys the energy for eight cents per kilowatt hour and credits the leasee six and a half cents per kilowatt hour. The difference of one and a half cents pays for maintenance and repair fees.

The lease agreement is for twenty-five years and, after the one time lease fee, there will be no additional costs or fees over the course of the twenty-five years. The kilowatt hours from the array will be measured as it comes out of the field. It will be possible to track the kilowatt hours produced from your leased panel(s) with a real time counter that will be on the Community Solar website.

BWL customers in good standing are allowed to lease as many panels as they want up to the typical annual consumption of their home or business. BWL will look at the customer’s total consumption over the past two years, average it, and use that as the upper limit for determining the number of panels that can be leased.

A lease of only one panel is expected to amount in an annual credit of about twenty to twenty-five dollars, with the breakeven point for the one-time fee of $399 being reached in about fourteen years.

At Monday’s forum, some questions were raised regarding the transferability of the leases. Mr. Kinch explained that if a customer is moving to another residence or business anywhere in the BWL service area, the lease transfers with the customer. If the move takes the customer outside the BWL service area, it is possible to transfer the lease, either by selling the lease for its pro-rated value or by donating the lease to another BWL customer, business, church, or nonprofit organization.

People in the audience wondered what happens to the project and the leases if BWL is sold, as has been discussed in Lansing. (Read the LSJ story on this.) Both Kinch and Robinson said they had never heard anything about a sale of BWL, but regardless, the leases will be good for twenty-five years.

Similarly, some people wondered what happens when new technology is available to replace the current solar panels. Both Kinch and Robinson agreed that while it is highly likely that solar technology will change and improve over the next twenty-five years, it will not be necessary to change panels. Long-term studies have shown that the current systems will still be 80-90 percent efficient after twenty-five years. The cost of replacing the system would not be justified.

The visual appearance of the Community Solar Project raised concerns with some of those in attendance. The one-thousand panel array will face south (not north like the demonstration panel currently on display in Burcham Park) and will be surrounded by chain-link fencing. As of now, there are no plans to hide the fencing which most in attendance at the forum agreed was not acceptable.

Of greatest concern was the north end of the project, which is planned to be relatively close to the sidewalk along Burcham Road and therefore highly visible. Suggestions from the audience included using vegetation such as grasses or hanging, banner-type screens which promote East Lansing. Others suggested the use of wooden fencing instead of chain-link. (If readers have suggestions for screening, they can be emailed to the project designer, Brett Robinson, at brett@green-circuit.com.)

The height of the fence was also called into question. The original design called for a height of six to eight feet. Residents from the area around the park raised the issue of deer in the area and asked what will happen if deer jump over the fence into the array. As a result of these discussions, those presenting said the height could be adjusted to ten feet.

Construction of the project will begin when 80% of the panels are leased. As of Monday night, five hundred of the one thousand panels were tentatively leased.

Anyone interested in leasing a panel (or more than one) is urged to sign up at the website, MICommunitySolar.org. Signing up expresses your interest in a lease, but it does not commit you to a lease at this point. Soon, Michigan Energy Options will be contacting people to formalize leases.