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Alachua County Solar Financing Strategies
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
SUBJECT:
March 24, 2015
Update on status of Alachua County solar financing strategies
Go Solar Florida Grant
On April 22, 2014, Alachua County entered into an interlocal agreement with Broward County to
partner with Orange County, Miami-Dade County, Munroe County, St. Lucie County, the City of Venice
in Sarasota County, and the Florida Solar Energy Center to form the Go Solar Florida Team. The mission
of the Team is to develop policies and procedures to standardize online permitting and remove
planning and zoning barriers within each participating county, and work with the Florida Solar Energy
Center (FSEC) to provide a single, uniform source of structural and electrical design plans for all Go
SOLAR–Florida partners. Separate committees, made up of key stakeholders from across the state, will
work to achieve statewide consistency in regulatory standards and overcome financial, political, and
bureaucratic hurdles that hinder the development of the solar market in Florida, using funds provided
from the US Department of Energy through a Rooftop Solar Challenge II grant awarded to Broward
County in 2014.
The Go Solar Florida Team has the following six objectives:
1. Develop and market a consortium of early adopter, solar friendly counties within Florida
focused on simplifying the solar permitting process and increasing solar installations, working
toward a critical mass of solar activity that stimulates the remainder of the State toward more
aggressive and comprehensive support of solar development.
2. Lower the soft-costs associated with grid-tied photovoltaics by standardizing the permitting
process across participating jurisdictions in seven Florida counties. The goal is to reduce typical
permitting times by 95%. The primary standardization will be the creation of permitting
systems that use electronic delivery of pre-approved design plans within the permit process,
eliminating this expense for the customer. Also included will be the creation of a long term
sustainable process by transferring electronic design plan maintenance and approval to FSEC.
3. Standardize solar related zoning regulations.
4. Enhance the availability of financing options.
5. Expand uniform net metering and interconnection standards.
6. Aggressively market solar energy and solar installations across this same target area.
The focus of this report is to summarize the work done by Alachua County locally to enhance the
availability of financing options and expand the use of solar in Alachua County.
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Alachua County Renewable Energy Policies
Dating as far back as 1991, the Alachua County Comprehensive Plan included policies in the
Conservation Element addressing energy conservation, some of which addressed alternative forms of
energy:
Policy 3.1.1
The County shall encourage the development and use of economically feasible and
environmentally safe, innovative energy sources and management techniques for housing,
transportation, commerce, and government offices by providing amendments to building codes,
where applicable, that facilitate the use of such sources and techniques and through promotion
of applicable tax incentives.
Policy 3.1.5
Alachua County should support the efforts of private individuals and organizations in their
attempt to reduce the County's dependency on conventional sources of energy.
In 2011, the Board of County Commissioners approved adoption of an optional Energy Element in the
Comprehensive Plan with a stated goal to “Reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel
consumption; mitigate the effects of rising energy costs; and promote the long-term economic security
of Alachua County through energy conservation, energy efficiency and renewable energy production.”
Much of the content of this Element stemmed from recommendations provided by the Energy
Conservation Strategies Commission (ECSC), a group of local experts appointed by the Board of County
Commissioners in 2007 tasked with creating a “menu of options" of a short and long term nature for an
effective and efficient community-wide energy conservation program, as well as implementation
recommendations. The work of the ECSC advisory group culminated in the ECSC Final Report provided
to the County Commission with recommendations that provided a foundation for the Energy Element
policies adopted by the Board in the 2011-2030 Comprehensive Plan.
The Energy Element includes sections on reduction goals, the built environment, energy efficient land
use, energy efficient transportation systems, county government initiatives, local food production and
processing, renewable energy, solid waste, and education and public information. The Renewable
Energy section of the Element includes the following objectives and policies:
OBJECTIVE 7.1
Encourage renewable energy production and a countywide system of distributed residential and commercial
power generation.
Policy 7.1.1
Encourage all utilities within Alachua County to retrofit existing systems to incorporate net
metering and establish net metering agreements.
Policy 7.1.2
Alachua County shall pursue implementation of an efficiency and renewable energy financing
program, such as a Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program.
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OBJECTIVE 7.2
Increase the use of solar and other forms of renewable energy by County residents, businesses and agricultural
operations.
Policy 7.2.1
Encourage and provide incentives for installing solar arrays on rooftops and other impervious
spaces, and remove any barriers to their installation in such areas.
Policy 7.2.2
Provide incentives for use of open space areas within Rural Clustered Subdivisions for renewable
energy production in accordance with Policy 6.2.12 of the Future Land Use Element.
The County Government Initiatives section of the Element includes the following objective and policies
on renewable energy:
OBJECTIVE 5.2
Increase the use of renewable energy in County government.
Policy 5.1.1
Alachua County shall purchase or produce
renewable energy for at least 10% of total County
government (cumulative) consumption by 2015,
and 20% by 2020.
Policy 5.1.2
The County shall incorporate renewable energy
production into County facilities where
appropriate.
Policy 5.1.3
SOLAR ARRAY AT THE ALACHUA COUNTY LEVEDA BROWN
ENVIRONMENTAL PARK AND TRANSFER STATION
Pursue funding to develop alternative energy
facilities that would be capable of producing
energy from anaerobic digestion, solar energy,
biodiesel or other forms of sustainable energy resources.
Information on the work done toward achieving these objectives for Alachua County facilities is
included in the following section.
History of Solar for Alachua County Facilities
On December 12, 2000, the Alachua County Board of County Commissioners directed staff to develop a
proposal of how to cut 1/3 of energy use in all County-buildings in a five year period and report back to
the Board. On April 22, 2003, the Board adopted a suite of administrative procedures entitled “Alachua
County Energy Reduction Policy” (regulation 03-01) identifying the responsibilities of all departments
and employees across the County in order to achieve the 1/3 reduction, including the following policy
statement:
“It is the policy of Alachua County to adhere to these procedures by
actively supporting the directive to reduce the energy consumption in all
buildings by 1/3 over the next five years.”
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In 2008, the ECSC Report recommended that Alachua County investigate the use of renewable energy.
In 2008, solar panels were installed on Fire Station #10 and in 2009 on Fire Station #17 to provide an
efficient hot water source. In 2009, the County installed a 25 kW Solar PV system for the Hazardous
Waste Collection Center facility at the Leveda Brown Environmental Park, with an additional 11 kW
installed on the roof of the facility. In May 2013, 92 solar panels were installed as part of the Jail HVAC
& Roof Replacement project. The Board approved a project in the Capital Improvement program in
FY14 to assess the use of solar on the roofs of County Buildings and determine funding. In 2014, Energy
Conservation Services of North Florida, Inc. was hired to analyze 28 buildings and determine the
suitability of each site based on roof orientation, age and type of roof, structural considerations, wind
loading, and plumbing access. The results of this assessment will be presented to the County
Commission by the Facilities Department on March 24.
Exploration of Solar Financing for the Community
In April 2014, a group of community residents interested in energy and sustainability issues gave a
presentation to the County Commission on Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs and
asked that the Commissioners take the necessary steps to adopt a Commercial PACE Program in
Alachua County with the ability to add residential properties when feasible. On May 27, 2014 the
Board took formal action requesting that third party administered PACE programs in Florida be
reviewed and brought back with recommendations on parameters, governance, administration and
stakeholder input. Over the next 6 months County staff held multiple stakeholder meetings with
various industry, homeowner, business and government groups and reached out to other local
governments, including Broward County and St. Lucie County, who either already had or were
considering PACE programs in their jurisdiction. In December staff presented all the information
compiled through this process to the County Commission, where the Board directed staff to move
forward with a procurement process for a third party administered commercial PACE program. Since
that time, at the recommendation of County staff, the Board has delayed the procurement process
pending the outcome of litigation at the state level regarding the bond validation of several program
providers. Staff plans to return to the Board in April to continue the PACE discussion.
Staff Recommendations Moving Forward
At this time staff recommends focusing first on what the County can do for their own facilities. The
following two alternatives have the best potential for Alachua County:
1.
Direct Purchase
The most straightforward financing method is the direct purchase of solar equipment for County
facilities by allocating funds annually through the budget process. Depending upon the Board’s
prioritization of CIP and their scope, issuing new debt service for additional large scale capital
projects may not be a viable option. Due to the County’s outstanding public improvement
bonds, any new debt issued over the next few years would require identification of a new
funding source such as an infrastructure sales surtax, millage referendum, or grant funding. The
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2.
earliest staff could recommend pursuing a new debt issue if all capital projects and programs
were held constant under current fiscal constraints would be in 2024.
Solar Leasing
Under a solar leasing agreement, the County could contract with a solar provider to lease the
County’s available roof space for installation of a rooftop solar system owned and maintained by
the provider. While the County would not receive direct credit from the utility for the power
generated by such systems, the revenue generated from the lease agreements could be used to
offset utility payments or other expenses. This approach is currently used by the Alachua County
Library District in their 20-year lease agreement with the local solar company Solar Impact. The
solar installations at the Main Library and the Millhopper Branch were both installed under the
Gainesville Regional Utility (GRU) Feed in Tariff (FIT) program. It is important to note the FIT
program was suspended and is not currently offered by GRU. Any excess power generated by
solar systems is currently paid back at the much lower ‘avoided cost’ rate, so it is unclear
without further research whether the return would be beneficial enough for a contractor to
enter into such an agreement at this time.
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