City Council
MEETING DATE: 6/20/2016
TITLE:
Title
Photovoltaic Carport Feasibility
End
FROM:
Tami Scott, Administrative Services Director
RECOMMENDATION:
Recommendation
This item is presented for information, discussion and direction.
Body
BACKGROUND:
During the City Council's goal setting session earlier this year, staff was directed to explore the feasibility of a photovoltaic carport system at multiple locations on city owned property.
DISCUSSION:
Staff developed and completed a request for proposal ("RFP") during the month of April. The RFP was independently emailed to 26 potential providers as well as advertised and publicly noticed. Staff received four (4) responsive bidders to the RFP, which were Borrego Solar, NexTera Energy, Renova Solar and Stronghold Engineering. A maximum scoring system of 130 was developed based on project development, design and construction experience, project financing, material supply, operations and maintenance experience, rebate processing, Renewable Energy Credit ("REC") experience, energy production assurance, monitoring capabilities, team organization and qualifications, system design, performance projections, guarantees and warrantees, project schedule; and, a 10% add-on for an organization located in the Coachella Valley. The high scorer was Borrego Solar.
Borrego Solar has been in business since 1980 and is the 2nd largest provider of photovoltaic solutions in the United States. Borrego provides complete in-house services to include design, engineering, construction, financing, maintenance and operations. Borrego is a California Corporation headquartered in San Diego, CA and holds a California State General Contractors B license, C10 Electrical license and a C46 Solar license. Borrego has completed over 1100 projects totaling more than 220MW of solar installations of ground mount, carport and roof mounted systems. Borrego specializes in large scale, multi-site projects for schools, local and state governments, water agencies, IPP's (Independent Power Producers) like Southern California Edison and investor owned utilities. Borrego offered the best package, the most efficient panels and was the only vendor to physically inspect all the potential facilities.
The sites determined to be possible for analysis were the civic center, fire administration building and the soccer park. The conclusion, should Council decide to move forward with any installation, would be only at the civic center.
FISCAL IMPACT:
Although the net present value of the projected savings is $302,450 over the next 25 years, it will be 9 years before the City benefits from any real savings and that is assuming the projected energy costs currently rise by 3.5% annually. The council may want to pass on solar at this time and continue to achieve energy savings through ongoing efficiency upgrades and revisit the photovoltaic carport system in the future when prices come down, utility rates increase or both. It is also recommended, should the City Council move forward at this time, that the system is only built at the civic center.
ATTACHMENTS:
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