December 22, 2010
By Hope Strong
Driggs and Victor get to spin the power meter backwards with solar panels.
ABOVE: Less than a mile west of the stoplight in Driggs there is an array of solar panels that are online to help keep the power bills down for the sewer system. CITIZEN PHOTO / HOPE
BELOW: In Victor, an enormous solar array was installed on the south-facing roof of the city building.CREATIVE ENERGIES PHOTO / ANDY TYSON
Historically, the light bill is pretty hefty during the winter months for Teton Valley residents, but two area towns are leading the way with alternatives by utilizing federal dollars to install solar panels.
Putting to work a combination of nearly $400K captured through the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) Program, funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the cities of Driggs and Victor are now running on sunshine, at least partially.
In separate EECB grants, Driggs and Victor were awarded $231,205 and $164,000 respectively to fully fund a pair of projects that didn’t take them off the grid, but allowed that grid to bank whatever power was in excess after running their own operations. Credits earned through a net metering system actually spin their meters backwards when they exceed the power necessary to function.
In Victor, an enormous solar panel was installed on the south-facing roof of the city building, and Driggs’ Waste Water Treatment Facility an impressive array of solar panels stand at attention north of the lagoons that utilize the power generated by the sun. With a capacity of 38.88 KW, the Driggs project is the largest municipal solar panel array in the state. Victor is running a close second with 31.36 KW capacity.
“Unless something drastic happens, we shouldn’t have an electric bill for the next 40 years at least,” said Victor City Clerk Craig Sherman.
Both the Driggs and Victor solar panel projects went through a specific bidding process, and both were awarded to Creative Energies, a company with offices in Victor and Lander, Wyo. that completed the pair of projects earlier this month.
Andy Tyson with the Victor office of Creative Energies is a member of the solar task force for the Idaho Strategic Energy Alliance, and he confirmed that the latter Teton Valley projects are the most significant solar arrays when it comes to municipalities.
“We are a local company that put in the low bid,” Tyson said. “It was awarded and then we designed and installed the two projects. These are very modern grid-tied systems that actually feed the grid if the panels make more electricity than the individual users need. If more energy is made than consumed, credits are issued by Fall River.”
Neither the Driggs nor the Victor systems have storage capacity. There are no batteries in the basement being charged by the solar panels. Excess power is simply delivered into the grid, resulting in the cleanest energy source imaginable. During cloudy days, the Driggs sewage lagoons and the Victor City Building pull power from the grid instead of adding it, but the freestanding Driggs panels and the roof-mounted Victor panels are rarely blocked by snowfall, as they are good conductors of heat. Mounted at a 45 degree angle, the Driggs panels are likely to clear of snow first. Even though the Victor panels are installed at a lesser angle, they are mounted on a metal roof that clears quickly.
“These towns went to the state and the state awarded federal dollars to these projects,” Tyson pointed out. “The result is taxpayer benefit for years. The systems are warrantied for 25 years. They’ll probably last 50.”
It was a priority of the EECB grants to deploy the cheapest, cleanest and most reliable energy technologies across the country in an effort to reduce fossil fuel emissions, improve energy efficiency in the transportation, building, and other appropriate sectors and create jobs.
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