Gig Harbor, Tacoma power providers shine light on community solar

For years, Jim Bellamy would size up the Harbor History Museum’s slanted roof whenever he drove along the Gig Harbor waterfront.

“It was boring,” he said.

The Peninsula Light Co. employee saw the sprawling, shingled rooftop as a blank canvas. He always thought the building’s prime location on Harborview Drive, on the north end of downtown, made it a perfect billboard for renewable energy.

Last week, Bellamy watched as 216 solar panels were installed, completing what he calls a “picture-perfect” scene atop the six-year-old building.

ITEK Energy of Bellingham manufactured the solar panels used in the project.

“Now it’s something that makes a real statement,” said Bellamy, who’s managing the solar project for PenLight.

The 60-kilowatt installation is the first community solar project built by a public utility in Pierce County. Tacoma Power has three projects planned for early 2016.

Local utilities such as PenLight and Tacoma Public Utilities are taking advantage of state financial incentives, along with the increasing affordability of solar equipment. The state’s Renewable Energy System Cost Recovery program offers monetary benefits for community as well as individual solar projects.

Both utilities say they’ve wanted to build community solar projects for years but found it too expensive — until now.

“Everything that we do related to energy conservation has to be cost-effective,” TPU spokeswoman Chris Gleason said. “We just reached the point where yes, we can offer it, yes, it will pay for itself, and yes, it will repay the customers.”

Community solar projects have seen a rise in popularity statewide in the last five years, with the biggest jump in the last year, according to data collected by Washington State University Extension’s Energy Program.

Each year from 2011 to 2014, between eight and nine community projects went online in Washington. That number doubled between 2014 and 2015, when 18 systems were built.

The increased interest can partly be attributed to the fact that the window is closing on state financial incentives. The program, which started in 2005 and expanded to include community solar in 2009, ends in 2020.

The Legislature backed the program to jump start the state’s renewable energy economy. The program provides a larger financial incentive to people who install solar equipment that’s manufactured in Washington. Previously, no solar panels were made in the state.

Jeremy Smithson, founder and CEO of Puget Sound Solar of Seattle, said the incentives have accomplished what legislators hoped.

“We’re all looking at 2020 as being the point when we don’t need these (state) incentives anymore,” said Smithson, who is also the legislative and public policy director for Solar Installers of Washington.

In total, 9,146 solar projects are now enrolled in the state program. The vast majority of them are homes and other individual projects. (PenLight has 70 individual projects, while TPU has 200.)

Statewide, there are only 55 community solar projects, according to WSU.

The state program initially targeted individual projects only. But that left out large groups of people, such as apartment-dwellers or those who live around tall trees.

Legislators expanded it in 2009 to include community solar projects, allowing utilities to provide investment opportunities for customers. It also doubled the incentive amount.

Bellamy compares community solar projects to community gardens, where people invest in a patch of land to harvest fruits and vegetables. Similarly, community solar participants buy into a project at a common site.

Benefits for customers vary depending on the utility provider.

In Gig Harbor, where the buy-in period is over, PenLight customers had the option to purchase up to 100 energy units of the 1,850 units available. Each unit cost $100.

The sale of units will pay for the estimated $200,000 installation.

PenLight estimates the annual payment to investors will be around $33 for every energy unit purchased, until the incentive runs out in 2020.

“You’re pretty much guaranteed — if you put in $100, you’ll get $150 back (at the end of five years),” Bellamy explained.

Meanwhile, the Harbor History Museum will be credited for the energy generated on its roof.

The museum will see close to $100,000 in savings from the solar panels over the next 20 years, Bellamy estimated. And after 2020, ownership of the solar panels goes to the museum.

Katharine Hensler, the museum’s executive director, appreciates that the power bill for the 6,000-square-foot building will go way down.

“Other than salaries, our biggest expense is the regular operating cost of the museum, and our power cost is enormous,” Hensler said. “For us to be able to save in that area is huge for us.”

Across the bridge, TPU’s community solar project will offer state incentives for program participants and credit them for the energy produced.

Even after the incentives end, participants will continue to receive a credit from TPU for their share of the solar energy generated.

TPU’s project will include three 75-kilowatt arrays installed on the roof of a utility-owned warehouse on Union Avenue.

Nearly 1,300 people have expressed interest in buying the energy units, available at $100 each.

Originally TPU planned to build one project, but demand was so high it opted to go forward with the three phases, Gleason said.

Both PenLight and TPU will create a public education component as part of their projects. That includes online access to see solar energy produced. And in Gig Harbor, a partnership with area schools will teach children about solar energy.

This story was originally published November 21, 2015 at 12:36 AM with the headline "Gig Harbor, Tacoma power providers shine light on community solar."