Solar Panel Systems Installed In Five Locations

f going green means going solar, then that is what the City of Portageville has done.

The City has purchased a total of 10 projects of solar panel systems from Southern Solar Systems based at Huntsville, AL.

You may have seen the units set in place, and are now completely installed with the reverse meters installed, and approved by Ameren, according the Larry Bradford, president of the company.

The systems are located:

* On top of the old ambulance shed for the City Hall administrative offices and court room.

* On top of the fire department building to help provide charges to the batteries to the fire trucks and other fire equipment, as well as temperature control.

Here is another set of three solar panels systems located at Meatte Memorial Park.

* At the water treatment plant.

* At Meatte Family Memorial Park, to help power the lift stations in that area.

* Behind the sewer treatment plant.

"After meeting with Mr. Bradford and listening to what he had to say, I became quite interested. After doing some of my own research and attending a meeting in Cape, I invited him to meet with the board," said Portageville Mayor Denis McCrate. "Really, he approached me like a salesman. I did not go looking for him."

"This is of no cost to the City of Portageville. This is sort of a lease program for 20 years. After that is depreciated out, we own his nothing and it is ours to maintain," said McCrate. "Each solar system had a reverse meter which reach how much energy we use, and how much power is sold back to Ameren."

Mayor McCrate said the City may see a 25 percent savings all across the City's total electric costs.As part of the contract Ameren is to pay to the city the $2 per kilowatt hour rebate, and then we pass that onto Southern Solar.

"Myself and the rest of the council members believe and hope this will really be a good thing for the City," McCrate said.

Bradford provided a little bit of history on the solar system industry which led to the City of Portageville in the placements of the solar panels.

He explains, "In 2005 when a republican led administration passed a 30 percent tax credit for solar systems, and renewed it in 2008 and extended it through 2016. They looked at purely from an economic standpoint. Solar will only be permanent when it becomes economically viable."

"People are building new solar factories in the U.S. Today, and are competing with the Chinese. Labor is 10 percent less that the cost of manufacturing a solar panel, because it is so automated. China only has a 10 percent advantage if they have zero labor, and they they have to ship it. They only have a 5-7 percent advantage over a U.S. Factory, and will not operate at the same margin," he said.

"China is doing today what the Japanese did with the automotive industry in the 1970's. At that time buying a Japanese product meant junk, but then they began to increase their quality. China is taking that same approach with solar. Their claim is to be the number one solar manufacturer in the world."

"In 2008, as part of an economic stimulus program, there was a job creating credit program set up for companies that could not use a tax credit, but you had to have tax in order to benefit from the tax credit program. A long with that of equal value of over five years was an accelerated depreciation program that would depreciated 85 percent of your cost, so your just 30 percent tax credit. Over a five-year period instead of a 30 year lifetime of the system. So if you could use that credit, you received a total of 60 percent of your money back on federal tax benefits," said Bradford.

"Then Congress passed a 1603 Treasury Grant Program, where you could take a 30 percent tax credit as a cash grant in lieu of the tax credit. This presented an opportunity for dealers to long term lease, plus the treasury grant had language in it that made it applicable to non-profit municipalities and government entities. It was specifically intended for cities and schools for them to get solar and take advantage tax credit benefit. This expired in 2011, but there weer some grandfather clauses in it, he said. If you had started a project, or if you had spent five percent or more on a project, and filing application with the treasury and get it approved, you father in through 2016."

"So our company took every dime we could fine in December 2011 and bought solar panels and stored them and applied them to different projects. The reason we sat on this a couple of years was to wait for the prices to get down, and now it has," he explained.

"We picked the Bootheel of Missouri because, I like dealing with country folks like I am. I initially wanted to work with poultry plants and ended up in Dexter with the Tyson plant there. Because most of the poultry produces in the Dexter area are members of a coop, these incentive programs were not admissible, but only to direct Ameren customers. I then began to expand my search and that is when I met Portageville Mayor Denis McCrate," Bradford said.

"After two meeting with him, he invited me to attend a City Council meeting and I presented my full presentation. At the next board meeting, the council agreed to move forward with my presentation to the next phase.Meanwhile, in between those two meetings, Mayor McCrate had the City Clerk to provide him with account numbers so that analyze which departments would be most beneficial for the program."

He is also working with two area high schools on solar panels, Holcomb and Gideon. He is also working with the City of Gideon. The Gideon school district is also moving forward with plans to have solar panels installed.

Holcomb Superintendent Ashley McMillian said the district isn't paying for installation costs or maintenance, and the panels are projected to save the school about $12,000 a year.

"During the day a day like this where it is very sunny outside, the solar panels are generating electricity," McMillian said. "There's a possibly that on a day when your buildings are using a tremendous amount your electric meter could be rolling backwards."

"Where the business aspects of it comes in for southern solar systems side is that it's projected we will save $12,000 in electricity through this," McMillian said. "We basically pay southern solar systems 50 percent of that as our lease payment for the time. It can't be more than that. If there's a year where our savings come out to $8,000, then our lease payment is 4 thousand dollars."

The lease lasts 20 years and after that the panels belong to the school and they keep all the savings. That's money McMillian looks forward to using for the school.

"I mean that just goes back to educating our kids," McMillian said. "Anyway we can save money and do that, it's a good thing."

You may start seeing the panels being installed as early as next week. The project is expected to be completed by the end of June.