Longmont targets 8 city-owned sites for future solar projects

LONGMONT — After a nearly year-long solar feasibility study, Longmont officials have compiled a list of eight city-owned sites most appropriate for future solar arrays. 

Staff started with more than 30 potential locations and narrowed them down based on how they align with Longmont’s “sustainability goals and relative lifecycle costs,” the city’s renewable energy strategy manager, Tim Ellis, said Tuesday when the study was presented to Longmont leaders. 

The feasibility study was launched in early 2020 after a 2018 pronouncement that Longmont would seek to achieve 100% renewable energy by 2030 and a 2019 declaration of a climate emergency. 

Ongoing efforts by electricity provider Platte River Power Authority to shift away from carbon energy sources, “together with this study, will help us determine ways to reach 100% renewable energy,” Ellis said.

Longmont staffers determined the following public sites could house future arrays. Also included are the estimated costs of the projects and the amount of energy they could produce in kilowatt hours:

• Waste services building, 110 S. Martin St., $375,000, 337,490 kWh.
• Wastewater treatment plant maintenance office, 501 1st Ave.,  $150,000, 114,00 kWh.
• Roosevelt Pavilion, 700 Longs Peak Ave., $170,000, 129,700 kWh.
• Centennial Pool, 1201 Alpine Street, $130,000, 112,000 kWh.
• Public Works Department vehicle storage, 375 Airport Road, $490,000, 392,240 kWh.
• Centennial Pool parking lot, 1201 Alpine Street, $750,000, 337,740 kWh.
• Nelson Flanders Water Treatment Plant, 13212 N 53rd Street, $2.11 million, 1,255,600 kWh.
• Wastewater treatment plant primary clarifiers, 501 1st Ave., $260,000, 245,850 kWh.

While Longmont Mayor Brian Bagley told staff he supports renewable-energy projects, he wanted more information about the costs and benefits of the project and questioned whether the city would be duplicating efforts that PRPA, with its economies of scale, could complete more cheaply.

“It’s technically feasible, but what I don’t see are the numbers that say we should do it,” he said of building solar arrays on city-owned property. 

Longmont City Councilwoman Polly Christensen pushed back against the notion that such projects must only be judged on a dollars and cents basis, noting that public solar projects can serve as examples for private property owners to follow.

“There’s a need for exploring all of the possibilities and I think this is a wonderful opportunity for us to make our buildings more efficient.”

Longmont Power and Communications Electric Department director David Hornbacher said there’s a good chance that much of Longmont’s costs could be offset by grant funding. The feasibility study, he said, is the “first step in preparedness” for applying for grants from groups such as the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, the American Public Power Association and the U.S. Department of Energy.

“Should more grants become available especially with [President-elect Joe Biden’s administration], we wanted to be well positioned,” Hornbacher said. “If there are monies that become available for this kind of work, we’d have the information available to be competitive in that environment.”

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