Next OPALCO community solar program to launch Spring of 2023

||| FROM ORCAS POWER & LIGHT COOPERATIVE |||

Thanks for your interest in OPALCO’s ongoing community solar program! We are making good progress on the next big project – despite pandemic delays in the supply chain – and are excited to share the conceptual drawing, design elements and timeline with you. 

The Bailer Hill Community Solar system will feature tracking solar panels to maximize output while balancing agricultural and other land use needs. The anticipated size is >3 MW (about six times larger than the first community solar project on Decatur Island) with an annual output of up to 4,800 MWh (about nine times larger than Decatur).   Thanks to a grant from the Washington Department of Commerce, we anticipate about 600 MWh of annual production value will go directly to benefit low-income households through OPALCO’s Energy Assistance Program! We are pleased to have Oak Knoll Farm contracted to graze their sheep on the property to help keep the grass down and make good dual use of the land. The sheep are already there doing their job!

Construction is expected to begin in the Spring of 2023. Our engineering team is finalizing a contract with the winning bidder for construction and together we will work hard to get materials, parts and permits finalized. Supply chain issues are still causing delays, but we expect to be ready to break ground next Spring. It’s been a challenging time to start a project of this scale!

Member subscription to the project are expected to open in May of 2023. As members of this solar list, you’ll be the first to know the details: what the cost per unit is, the size of each unit (in KW and relative to each solar panel) and the anticipated return on investment period.  As we did with the Decatur Microgrid Project, we’ll let each member request as many units as they want, but award units in tranches to make sure all members who are interested can have a piece of the project during a time-limited offering.  There is a lot of interest for this project and we expect subscriptions to sell quickly. 

An exciting development for this project is that members can finance their community solar investment with OPALCO’s Switch it Up on-bill finance program: https://energysavings.opalco.com/switch-it-up-2/. Once the subscription period is open, members will be able to apply online and get their piece of the Bailer Hill Microgrid with no money down – financing up to $100,000 on their power bills for up to 10 years with a 2% administration fee. Stay tuned for more details.

Thanks for your patience as we keep this project moving.  It’s progressing slower than we hoped, but we are still on track to bring all of the benefits of local energy resilience to the Co-op and another important opportunity for members to offset their own energy usage without the major capital outlay of rooftop solar.