HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - 10-21-2014-13 (2)INFORMATION ITEM
Memorandum
To: Bonnie Hammersley, County Manager
From: Gayle Wilson, Director - Department of Solid Waste Management
David Stancil, Director- Department of Environment, Agriculture, Parks and Recreation
Subject: BOCC Follow -up — Potential for Solar Energy Project at Closed Landfill
Date: September 29, 2014
At the April 15, 2014 meeting the Board of Commissioners requested that David Stancil and Gayle
Wilson provide information regarding the potential for alternative energy producing opportunities at
the closed landfill on Eubanks Road such as solar. A preliminary investigation into the subject resulted in
the following feedback.
County staff asked the county's engineering consultant HDR Engineering of the Carolinas to consider the
Board's request and help staff to develop an informed response. HDR contacted Jay Cobb with Strata
Solar. Strata Solar is a turn -key developer for the installation and operations of solar energy projects
with their corporate office located in Chapel Hill. HDR provided a summary of the Orange County Facility
and indicated that the County had an interest in meeting with a representative of Strata Solar to discuss
the potential for developing a solar project on the site. Mr. Cobb said that normally they would conduct
an initial meeting with an interested party to do a site evaluation and complete a financial model to
determine if it is advantageous to continue with development of a project. However, he felt that it
would not be feasible at this time to pursue a solar project with Orange County for the following
reasons:
1- The key to financial feasibility of solar projects is that they are contingent upon the tax credits
available to the project and since Orange County cannot use the tax breaks it reduces the available
revenue for a project. In other words, the turn -key solar development companies are not as interested
in the public sector as they are in the private sector since the revenue possibilities are much greater for
the latter. A project at Eubanks Road would provide revenues to the County in the form of lease
payments for use of the property which would generally be low.
2- The cost of installation of the solar panels on a closed landfill is much higher due to the cap system
which must be taken into account when designing the support system. For green field areas the posts
that support the rack system are generally driven 6 to 8 feet in the ground. This is not possible on a
closed landfill because it would impact the cap system. The use of a ballasted system, which is
comprised of concrete blocks on which the solar panels are installed, are required on a closed landfill to
protect the integrity of the cap system. Strata Solar has developed and installed this type of system on a
research and development basis but has not used it in a project due to its higher installation cost.
The main issue here is that Strata Solar, along with the other solar developers, has a number of projects
available to them that can use a "cookie- cutter" approach to development which keeps the installation
costs low and through tax credits with private owners can maximize the revenues from a project. They
are not currently pursuing the installation of solar energy recovery at old landfills at this time but may
have interest in the future.
Based on HDR's conversation with Strata Solar, staff believes it would be in the best interest of Orange
County to hold off pursuing a solar project at Eubanks Road currently, but revisit it in the future as
conditions may change. Staff is available to answer any additional questions on this issue as necessary.