News

February 2, 2012

Whidbey Examiner - Elisabeth Murray

The addition of a second solar array at Greenbank Farm is expected to double the facility’s capacity for electrical production.

Electricians from Whidbey Sun and Wind, the renewable energy company that installed both sets of arrays, completed the final wiring early on Jan. 26 and the panels were set to begin production that afternoon, according to company Project Manager Paul Dickerson.

Dickerson also is a founding member and investor with Island Community Solar, the group that organized the solar project.

While the project has drawn interest from many local residents who support alternative energy, Port of Coupeville Commissioner Laura Blankenship said she is concerned about the impact on the port budget.

The port is shouldering all of the infrastructure expenses for the project, she said.

The port had made an initial investment of $27,000 of its own money in this project for site preparation. The port has struggled in recent years with a small budget and large expenses to maintain the facilities at its two properties, Greenbank Farm and Coupeville Wharf.

Blankenship, who was elected in November 2011, was not on the board when the decisions concerning the financial arrangements between the port and Island Community Solar were made.

“It is important for the port to support economic development, but it must keep an eye towards its own budget,” Blankenship said. “I have no issues at all with the solar project itself.”

John Hastings, board president of Island Community Solar, said he feels the port did well in this arrangement.

“The port got a good deal out of it,” Hastings said. “In the short term, the investors hope to get 5 to 6 percent return on their investment. In the long term, in 2020 the port will have the first option to buy the array at a depreciated cost.”

According to Hastings, owning the array will allow for the farm to produce 80 percent of the electricity it needs.

The port could not have pursued the solar project on its own, Hastings said. A $400,000 investment was needed for this project. Some members of his group invested more than $25,000 each.

When the first array began producing electricity in July 2011, Port of Coupeville Executive Director Jim Patton told the Examiner that it cost $50,300 for site preparation and installation of an informational kiosk.

According to Hastings, site preparation included putting the conduits in the ground from the array across the event fields, installing a transformer and creating a panel with six different meters.

Of the total, $25,000 came from a Puget Sound Energy grant that was awarded to the Port of Coupeville by the Island County Council of Governments. Another $27,000 in costs were covered by the port, Patton said.

In addition to these items, Blankenship notes, the lease requires the port to cover the cost of landscape screening and security fences for the arrays as well as the disabled-accessible walkway that leads out to the arrays.

“The funding (provided by the port) is a huge step forward on the stated goals for (Greenbank) Farm,” Hastings said, citing goals outlined in the port’s comprehensive plan.

Those goals include green development, energy independence and creating public-private partnerships.

Dickerson has been pleased with how the first solar array has performed.

“There have been no kinks in the system,” he said, adding that everything is operating as expected.

“As a design and installation company, we only select tried-and-true products that are of the highest quality,” Dickerson said.

Thanks to the rain shadow cast over Central Whidbey by the Olympic Mountains, electrical production levels in Greenbank are higher than those at other Puget Sound area enterprises, Hastings said.