City, Port Auth., Private Partners Unveil New Solar Field
City, Port Authority and private partners unveil new solar field
Alternative energy source to provide power to water treatment plant
The City of Toledo and its partners today unveiled a five acre solar field on the grounds of its Collins Park Water Treatment Plant on the city’s east side. The project, which began in 2010 is the culmination of $5.2 million in public/private partnership investment to bring clean, alternative energy to the city while reducing energy consumption costs for the plant.
The partnership included the City of Toledo which provided a $2.2 million Energy Efficiency & Conservation Block grant which supported design and partial financing of the project; the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority which provided structuring, analysis and legal support through BetterBuildings Northwest Ohio and $1 million in long term fixed rate bond financing through its Northwest Ohio Bond Fund; and IPS Energy Ventures, LLC which brought additional equity and federal grants contributing to the financing, construction and construction management of the facility. IPS will also own, operate and maintain the facility for the first 10 years of operation.
Additional local partners First Solar, Nextronex, AP Alternatives and Advanced Distributed Generation provided equipment, installation and performance testing facilities, helping to keep the project housed in northwest Ohio.
The solar field will provide approximately one megawatt of energy to the Collins Park plant, which typically requires five megawatts for operation. The City of Toledo will purchase the power from IPS at a lower rate the First Energy for the first ten years of operation. After that time the city will own the solar field and aside from the benefits of energy consumption, will have the ability to see clean energy credits.
“The key element of success in this venture was the partnership between public agencies like the City and the Port Authority, as well as our private contributors like IPS, ADG and our growing industry of solar energy parts suppliers,” said Toledo Mayor Michael P. Bell. “The City could not on our own produce a solar field of this size and benefit - partnership was the key.”
“Toledo sits at the heart of the new manufacturing economy and the Collins Park Solar Field embodies that new economy. All of the core products for the solar production system including the solar panels, inverters and mounting systems were provided by local area companies First Solar, Nextronex and AP Products. The design, engineering and construction of the system were also done locally by Advance Distributed Generation and Industrial Power Systems Inc.,” says Paul Toth, President and CEO of the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority. “This public/private partnership demonstrates how our region is committed to looking differently at energy and job production and the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority - through our BetterBuildings Northwest Ohio program - is extremely proud to join our partners in making this project a reality.”
The Collins Park Water Treatment facility filters an average of 80 million gallons of water per day; an energy intensive process that uses approximately five megawatts of power on a 24-hours a day, seven days a week basis. The solar field will provide in excess of one million kilowatt hours annually, contributing approximately 20 to 25 percent of the electricity needed to operate the plant.
BetterBuilding Northwest Ohio - a program of the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority - is just one of 25 programs across the nation made possible through funding from the U.S. Department of Energy. BetterBuildings Northwest Ohio focuses on energy efficiency projects and improving buildings across northwest Ohio by financing energy efficiency technology.
Press Release Contact Name: Jen Sorgenfrei
Press Release Contact Email: [email protected]
Organization Name: City of Toledo