Some of Menlo Park’s metropolis buildings will quickly be photo voltaic powered, after the Menlo Park City Council authorized the set up of photo voltaic panels on 4 city-owned buildings at its May 21 assembly. The panels shall be put in on the Belle Haven Child Development Center, Burgess Pool, City Hall and the Menlo Park Library. The new panels shall be supplied by Peninsula Clean Energy, a nonprofit supplier of photo voltaic panels and photo voltaic storage, via their GovPV program.
Through the GovPV Program, PCE designs, installs, operates and maintains photo voltaic panel arrays without charge to the town. Menlo Park will then pay for the vitality produced by the panels via month-to-month electrical payments. Electricity is bought at a set fee, avoiding future value will increase.
City workers estimate that buying electrical energy via this electrical energy buy settlement with PCE will lead to important financial savings.
“It is predicted that this photo voltaic portfolio will save the town $2.9 million in utilities over the lifetime of the agreements as a result of mounted value of electrical energy, and the town’s visibility and signing up for web vitality metering, which permits us to be grandfathered in at a way more favorable fee,” stated Menlo Park Sustainability Manager Rachael Londer.
The PCE settlement has a 20-year time period. At the top of the settlement, there are alternatives for Menlo Park to purchase the system, prolong the settlement or take away the panels. The metropolis additionally has the chance to buy the techniques earlier than the top of the time period if desired.
Council member Maria Doerr stated she appreciates the work metropolis workers did to seek out funding for the mission.
“It’s additionally nice to see all of the totally different funding sources that the town has come collectively to assist fund this mission with PCE,” he stated. “Love to see that leveraging of native {dollars} by discovering state and federal cash to make issues occur.”
The roofs of the Belle Haven Child Development Center, City Hall and Menlo Park Library will should be changed earlier than the photo voltaic panels could be put in. The council has already authorized the funds to cowl the price of changing the roof.
Roof replacements will happen someday between now and 2025. Solar panels will probably be put in and energized by 2025.
