Counting on solar: Lafayette project has positive environmental and economic impacts

BY BRAD OPPENHEIM

PHOTOS PROVIDED

The City of Lafayette is proactively taking steps in combatting climate change in a variety of ways, including the installation of two additional solar panel fields, building on the city’s legacy of sustainable practices.

Last summer marked the groundbreaking of the third city-owned solar field, which will be constructed at the Lafayette Renew Wastewater Treatment Plant on Wabash Avenue. The ultimate goal is to reduce the plant’s electrical consumption. According to city officials, plans for a fourth solar field installation are also in the works, slated to be placed at the Ross Road Lift Station located near U.S. 52 and Creasy Lane. Both of these projects are expected to be completed in the fall of 2024.

“Lafayette has been discussing a solar array project for quite some time now,” says Lafayette Renew Superintendent Brad Talley. “The utility has looked at several ways to reduce electrical consumption within the treatment plant, and solar seemed to be the next logical step in reducing the plant’s carbon footprint.”

The city has been integrating solar energy into its operations for the past couple of years. The first solar array installed by Lafayette Renew took place at the Pearl River Lift Station and has been operating since June 2022. According to Talley, harnessing the alternative form of energy has proven to be successful in mitigating electrical costs. Additionally, the city installed solar panels on the roof of the new public safety building located downtown.

“With the solar field on the public safety building and with other sustainable and other mechanical and lighting equipment, the electric bill for the building is half compared to the old police facility at city hall, and the new building is double the size,” says Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski. “With the improvements of panels, the efficiency is very high and the maintenance is very low.”

At the wastewater treatment plant, the implementation of 1,491 solar panels is set to offset approximately 22 percent of the energy consumption at the plant in an average year. This equates to an annual savings of nearly one million kilowatt hours, and when factoring in the projected utility rates ($0.1088/kWh), savings come out to just under $107,000 in year one of the guarantee.

Plans call for 410 solar panels to be installed at the Ross Road Lift Station, which will offset roughly 3 percent of the energy used there each year. This translates to an annual savings of more than 267,000 kilowatt hours at the projected utility rates ($0.1419/kWh), coming out to nearly $38,000 in year one of the guarantee.

“Solar energy is clean, renewable and reliable, unlike many other forms of energy,” says Talley. “Using a form of energy such as solar can have tremendous environmental and economic impacts on a community, as we are already starting to see.”

Along with helping cut energy costs, Roswarski says these initiatives also help protect and conserve the community’s natural resources. “The city wants to do its part towards addressing climate change.”

Both of these installations are projected to produce substantial annual savings through balancing peak and base electrical demand. Over the course of two decades, the solar arrays at both facilities are expected to result in a combined $6.9 million in energy savings, based on increasing billing rates of nine percent annually.

“From a taxpayerʼs perspective, the return on investment is very good,” Roswarski says.

As for financing the infrastructure, the guaranteed maximum price for both installations comes with a $3.9 million price tag. According to Talley, this will be paid for with a combination of the treatment plant’s capital asset funds and rebates from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that are provided by the federal government.

The city expects a minimum of a 30 percent rebate, with a high chance of receiving a 40 percent rebate, covering a significant portion of the projects. If a 40 percent rebate were to be granted, the city would be responsible for just over $2.3 million in construction costs with an estimated payback period of less than nine years. Without any rebates, the estimated payback period would be approximately 14 years.

“Our actions at Lafayette Renew and the City of Lafayette in adopting renewable energy will hopefully serve as an example for others in our community to consider the same,” Talley says.

These actions come at a time when Greater Lafayette as a whole is putting an emphasis on addressing climate change. The Greater Lafayette Climate Action Plan, which was adopted in early 2023, highlights the collaborative efforts Lafayette, West Lafayette and Tippecanoe County are taking in working towards creating a climate-resilient community, a reduced carbon footprint, and an equitable quality of life for residents. In addition to keeping electrical costs lower, these projects will benefit the community for years to come by reducing the region’s carbon footprint as a whole.

Talley says recent online search trends have proven that climate change is top of mind for Greater Lafayette residents.

“From discussions we have had as part of the Greater Lafayette Climate Action Plan process, in 2022, Greater Lafayette residents searched for the term “climate change” on Google more than any other community in the United States,” Talley says.

These data were published as part of Google’s year-end report.

The climate action plan includes a snapshot of Greater Lafayette’s greenhouse gas emission profile, proving that most of the greenhouse gases come from energy usage in the built environment, which includes residential, commercial and industrial buildings. The solar arrays support the city’s overall carbon emission reduction goals as put forth by the plan.

“Solar has been discussed with local leaders as part of the Greater Lafayette Climate Action Plan,” Talley says. “Solar energy was a major theme of the plan due to its numerous benefits and applicability to our community. The plan not only supports solar adoption on the commercial and industrial level, but also on the residential level.”

As detailed in the report, the strategy to address climate change involves reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Greater Lafayette by 58 percent by 2030 and 80 percent by 2050.

“By producing and using energy from the sun for our electrical needs at the wastewater treatment plant and Ross Road Lift Station, we are making a commitment to improve the environmental health in our community for generations to come,” says Talley.

Roswarski says cities across the country have been challenged to convert to clean energy and it’s important that Lafayette leads by example.

“I feel that Greater Lafayette is doing a very good job in investing in renewable energy, sustainability, and public transportation, which will help us achieve our goals in the climate action plan,” Roswarski says.

“Lafayette looks forward to being a leader in renewable energy from this point forward,” says Talley. ★