It’s called Sun Valley for a reason—with more than 200 sunny days annually, expanding solar power in the Wood River Valley could bring big returns with lowered expenses and a reduced carbon footprint.
Local solar initiatives, including harvesting solar power in subzero temperatures, will be explored at the Ketchum Energy Advisory Committee’s second Energy Town Hall on Wednesday, Sept. 10, at Ketchum City Hall at 5:15 pm.
This is the second of four town halls being hosted by the advisory committee. The group is made up of proponents of both traditional and alternative sources of power, and aims to bring cleaner energy into the Wood River Valley.
Speakers at Wednesday’s event will include John Reuter of John Reuter Greenworks, Rebecca Bundy, Ketchum city planner and sustainable residential designer, and Tim Cron, owner and operator of the Sawtooth Hotel and Stanley Bakery, who built solar heating systems at his two businesses.
Among Idaho-based experts on solar power, optimism is abundant as the price of solar continues to decrease and the market sees more diversification from traditional power.
According to Aimee Christensen, energy advisory chair and CEO of energy consulting group Christensen Global, there are three options for solar expansion in the valley: distributed solar, community solar and utility-scale solar. Those range from personal solar endeavors to large-scale projects that supply the overall power mix.
Idaho Power Co. recently signed contracts with two Idaho developers for solar projects—a 40-megawatt plant between Kuna and Boise as well as an 80-megawatt plant near Mountain Home that could generate 120 megawatts to service more than 80,000 homes.
On the independent initiative front is the Sawtooth Hotel and Stanley Bakery in Stanley. Cron worked with an out-of-state solar company almost 10 years ago to create a solar thermal package at both businesses. After Cron, his wife, Becky, and sister-in-law Kelli Kerns bought the hotel building in 2004, the new owners faced extensive remodels to the 1931-vintage structure. Finding “the right guy at the right time”—Bozeman, Mont.,-based Todd Hoitsma of Liquid Solar Systems—they elected to install eight 4-foot-by-8-foot solar panels on the hotel’s south-facing roof and a 600-gallon tank in the basement, and later installed an 80-gallon tank with two 4-by-10 panels at the bakery.
“Solar prices continue to fall and get as cheap as or cheaper than grid power.”
Aimee Christensen
Ketchum Energy Advisory Committee chair
Though it cost Cron and his business partners nearly $20,000 in up-front costs, they secured a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant under its Rural Energy for America Program that covered 25 percent of the cost. They later received tax credits for another 30 percent.
“The guys at the grant office were really supportive,” Cron said. “At the end of the day, we got money back from the federal government.”
Local alternative energy advocates are exploring ways to bring communitywide solar initiatives to the valley. Karl Bokenkamp, operations strategy director for Idaho Power Co. and a Wood River Valley Renewable Energy Working Group member, said the group is exploring ways for residents to “fine tune” their power supply. A community solar grid, for instance, could connect to the Idaho Power grid and become a locally distributed resource. Billy Mann of Sagebrush Solar is looking into that, Bokenkamp said, while he is exploring the possibility of locally sourced renewable energy certificates.
The certificates, also known as “green tags,” represent one megawatt-hour of green electricity and can be sold by Idaho Power to people interested in investing in renewable energy, according to the company’s website. All electricity generated by renewable resources can be either sold wholesale or delivered to customers. Idaho Power’s “Green Power Program” allows residents to buy into renewable resources courtesy of “broker” Bonneville Environmental Foundation in Oregon. More than 18 million kilowatt-hours were purchased by Idaho Power customers in 2012.
A problem with generating solar power, according to an Idaho Power Solar Integration Study released in June, is intermittent failures when it’s not sunny. However, through dispersion of solar plants throughout southern Idaho, intermittency can be lessened. While solar at a community level can contribute to the overall mix of power, “reliability is something we’re dealing with at a system level,” Bokenkamp said.
Bundy designed a house in the early 2000s with her then-husband Morgan Brown that garnered about 60 percent of its electricity from photovoltaic panels. They used credit from Idaho Power to finance traditional power during the winter season. Bundy and Brown’s local project was an early example of the relationship between solar projects and the dominant power company that soon gave way to many developer proposals.
Under the Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act, power companies must buy power at a state commission-approved rate from qualifying small power production facilities, as well as cogeneration facilities (plants that produce both electricity and efficiently sourced thermal energy). Before its June Solar Integration Study came out, Idaho Power filed a temporary stay on its PURPA requirement and claimed that dozens of solar projects were bearing down on the company to buy their electric capabilities. However, the Idaho Public Utilities Commission ruled in May that there was no threat to the company given the lack of cost studies conducted up to that point.
With statewide bureaus protecting the solar businessperson, it’s an “exciting time,” according to Christensen, for those interested in alternative energy sources.
“Solar prices continue to fall and get as cheap as or cheaper than grid power, enabling individuals at their homes or businesses to generate their own power and reduce their price risk from what used to be the only source of power—their utility,” she said.
Amy Busek: abusek@mtexpress.com
A Liquid Solar Systems team installs panels on the south-facing roof of the 1931 Sawtooth Hotel in Stanley.
