City officials say solarization saving money, reducing carbon footprint

Aug. 16—How much is 1 megawatt?

Enough energy to power 250 homes. Six acres of solar panels.

By another measurement, the amount of solar energy now being generated at the Buckman Direct Diversion as part of an ambitious city of Santa Fe project to transition away from fossil fuels.

Started in 2019, the project has brought the Santa Fe city government up to about 25% clean energy, helping the city reduce its carbon footprint and cut down on its utility bills, said Public Works Department Director Regina Wheeler.

The project began after Santa Fe received a $925,000 legislative appropriation for a solar and energy conservation project. The city entered into a $14 million lease purchase finance agreement with Sterling National Bank to fund the rest of the project in 2021, which will be paid back over an 18-year period at a 2.1% interest rate.

Despite much of the work taking place during the coronavirus pandemic, which led to significant supply chain interruptions, Wheeler said the project was completed within budget.

In total the city put solar panels on 23 facilities, including the Santa Fe Regional Airport, the Genoveva Chavez Community Center, the Fort Marcy Recreation Complex, the Paseo Real Wastewater Treatment Plant, the Canyon Road Water Treatment Plant and the Buckman Direct Diversion, which has solar arrays on multiple booster stations and wells. Wheeler said the city focused on water and wastewater facilities because they are very energy intensive.

"Whenever we get a solar project we're like, 'Hey water, can we put some solar over there?' " Wheeler said with a laugh.

The city only put solar panels on facilities where the conversion to renewable energy would pay for itself, Wheeler said.

"After we pay off the debt of the improvements, we will put money in our pockets," she said.

Wheeler noted the Buckman Direct Diversion, which is jointly owned by the city and Santa Fe County, has a lower utility rate than either residential or other commercial buildings.

"So that solar array had to generate power at a rate that was competitive with what they were already paying," she said. "And it did — we ended up putting a megawatt out there."

Along with solar arrays, the project included installing 10,000 LED light fixtures in 29 buildings, replacing 27 transformers with high-efficiency versions, installing more than 800 low-flow water fixtures in city facilities and conducting building sealing and roofing improvements. The city also conducted repairs of the existing solar array at the Genoveva Chavez Community Center carport, which city staff discovered was only operating at 50% capacity.

The contractor was Albuquerque-based Yearout Energy Services, which conducted the initial assessment and the bulk of the work. They also guaranteed the savings in the project.

"That really protects the city, and it also protects those private funders that gave us money," Wheeler said.

Each solar array needed an individual permit, which required the approval of either the City Council or city manager and a separate process to obtain approval from the Public Service Company of New Mexico to ensure the equipment will work with its grid. Public Works and Utilities project administrator Caryn Grosse oversaw the permitting process.

"We should definitely give her a little pedestal, because she did all of it," Wheeler said.

The final solar panel array to go online will be at Buckman's Booster Station No. 3, which is awaiting approval from PNM, Grosse said.

Calculations from Yearout state the project will help the city avoid generating 6.7 million pounds of CO2 emissions a year, equivalent to removing about 580 cars from the road or planting 825 acres of trees.

Grosse said the project added about 2.7 MW of clean energy to the city's portfolio, which had 4 MW of clean energy beforehand. The project will save the city 7 million kilowatt-hours of fossil fuels a year, she said, and will also help save several millions gallons of water a year which would have been used in energy generation.

"It's a pretty big deal for saving water as well as electricity and utility costs," she said.

The project was met favorably by city councilors, who received a presentation from Yearout and city staff at its July 31 meeting, and has also had the support of Buckman Direct Diversion leaders.

County Commissioner Anna Hansen, who sits on the Buckman board, said the solar panels have been a boon to the facility.

"Any way we can save money for the constituents and the operation of the BDD is to all of our advantage," she said.

Hansen, who has been an advocate for environmental policies throughout her political career, had solar panels installed on her home in 2009.

"The solar panels paid for themselves, and that's what they're doing at the BDD," she said, noting transitioning to clean energy is "the right thing to do."

Wheeler said it's possible there are more opportunities for the city to explore now than when the initial assessment for the project was conducted. If PNM ends up raising its rates, that would change the cost-benefit calculus for more clean energy projects.

The assessment also took place before the passage of the federal Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, the largest investment in clean energy in the nation's history.

One thing the law did, Wheeler said, is offer cities 30% rebates from the federal government on solar connectivity projects. That incentive didn't exist the last time the city conducted a feasibility assessment for clean energy projects.

"That means there might be more we can do, and we should look again," she said.