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CHAMPAIGN, IL (January 20, 2015) – Construction of a 5.87 megawatt (MW) Solar Farm on campus will begin in Spring 2015 after university and state officials approved power purchase and land lease agreements with Phoenix Solar South Farms, LLC.
See the attached release, fact sheet, and poster for more details.
To increase the use of renewable energy sources for campus electrical needs and meet the commitments set by the 2010 Climate Action Plan, the University of Illinois issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a firm to design, build, operate, and maintain (DBOM) a Solar Farm at the Urbana campus with a corresponding Power Purchase Agreement. The Solar Farm will be connected directly to the University’s electrical distribution system in parallel with the electrical service provided by the local utility.
The University provides electricity, chilled water, and steam service to more than 50,000 people (faculty, staff and students) who work, learn, and/or live on the campus. The electricity generated from campus is delivered to the campus via the University’s owned and operated distribution system. Although the University’s grid is connected to the local utility transmission and distribution system, which receives transmission services from the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator (MISO), the University will use all of the electricity generated from the solar farm project.
The University is seeking a proposal to lease 21 acres of land in the South Farms area, for the installation and operation of a Solar Farm. The University will lease the land to the selected Proposer for $1.00 per year and establish a Power Purchase Agreement for the renewable energy. The Proposer will be responsible for design, construction, permitting, transportation needs, operation, and maintenance of the Solar Farm, as well as connection to the University’s electrical grid.
Dear Tim,
Some bad news to report. The Revolving Loan Fund committee elected to defer consideration of the funding for the biomass boiler, because they were concerned that the operational and maintenance issues were not yet worked out. This is not as bad of news as I first thought, because the RLF process is going to be revamped in the spring to be more of a "rolling deadline" process, so we should be able to go back to them sometime in the spring and get a quick response.
Given the delay in RLF funding, it seems to make sense to delay our proposal to ICECF until July. Another important consideration here is that the North Campus Parking Deck Solar project is evidently going to apply to ICECF in January, and there is at least some concern about submitting two proposals from campus in the same round. Yet another consideration is that upon reviewing the ICECF form, we noticed that they are looking for a well-developed educational plan...and we have not really spent any time working on that.
So I'm afraid we are in a bit of limbo here, until we get the O&M issues resolved and the MOU with F&S finalized. Hopefully we can tackle that in January, so that we're ready to go back to RLF as soon as their process re-opens.
At least we've finally made great headway on the engineering work, and will have some real budgetary numbers to work with soon...!
Cheers,
Ben
To fund solar panels, there could be a Solar Donor program. Tom Abram, previous F&S Sustainability Coordinator, wrote about the concept in 2009 (see file).
Dear Energy Enthusiasts,
Thanks to all who attended the first Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE) biomass meeting, we are off with a strong start. This week we we will have the second consultation group meeting to carry on discussion and orient goals toward improving sustainability on campus.
Dong Kook will present on the most recent publications from the research group of Praveen Kumar in the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. His topic for discussion will be Threshold Dynamics in Soil Carbon Storage for Bioenergy Crops. Click (here) to become familiar with their group's work.
We are gathering all interested persons to discuss the possibilities for a large-scale biomass facility that could eventually replace Abbott Power Plant. All ideas are welcome. Please pass this invitation on to anyone you think might be interested.
Meeting details:
Time: Tuesday, November 18 from 1:00pm-2:30pm
Location: iSEE Conference room #358
National Soybean Research Center (directions here)
1101 W. Peabody Drive
Urbana, IL 61801
Thanks and have a great weekend.
Nathan Wells
iCAP Working Group Thursday, October 30, 2014 358 NSRC, 1:30 - 3:00 pm
Dear Al,
Attached please find a reply from the iCAP Working Group regarding the wind PPA process.
By the way, thanks so much for your participation in iSEE's Roundtable this week...sorry we didn't get a chance to chat!
Cheers,
Ben
--
Professor Benjamin J. McCall
Associate Director for Campus Sustainability Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus-sustainability@illinois.edu
Objective 3.1 is for the SWATeam to lead an exploration of options for 100% clean energy and submit recommendations. F&S staff workload is too high to handle the exploration of options, so F&S will provide data and provide comments. Ben McCall and Scott Willenbrock will develop a plan for how to achieve carbon neutrality. They will make a document with potential options, pros, cons, and costs.
Hi Energy Generation SWATeam,
I was looking at my records, and I came across this old biomass reference presentation. I thought you may want to look into the current status of these projects.
Thanks,
Morgan
Attached here are the agenda and other relevant materials for the September 25, 2014 meeting of the iCAP Working Group.
This letter is in response to the Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP) Working Group (iWG) recommendation #EG001, which Facilities & Services (F&S) received on August 28. F&S agrees that the campus should investigate the feasibility of entering into a Wind Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) to increase the use of renewable energy for campus.
Regarding the EG001 general statements about campus energy use, data points, and assessments of anticipated financial impacts, F&S will need more time to compile a useful response. Regarding the three specific EG001 recommendations, I have consulted with Al Stratman, Kent Reifsteck, and Mike Larson to provide the responses below.
From this recommendation, we understand that the iWG recommends entering into a Wind PPA for at least 25% of the FY15 electrical demand. However, the campus cannot make an informed decision about whether or not to undertake a PPA until the financial impact is fully understood. A key component of the financial impact is the fully burdened cost of the purchased wind power, which will not be known until after the successful completion of the Request for Proposal (RFP) process. Therefore, F&S does support pursuing a PPA so the feasibility can be evaluated, but we do not support making a final decision to undertake a PPA until completely evaluating the financial implications.
During this summer, F&S worked with PEI to define a schedule for issuing a Request for Information (RFI) and a subsequent Request for Proposals (RFP). This schedule shows a completion date of April 2015, so that the PPA could commence with delivery of power on July 1, 2015, at the start of FY16. We have informed PEI that this is a top priority, along with safety and reliability of the overall campus energy system.
F&S values the advice and input from sustainability advocates on campus. Therefore, we suggest developing a set of interim checkpoints for keeping the iWG informed as the process unfolds.
To meet our Climate Commitment and achieve carbon neutrality, there is a lot of work that needs to be done. I look forward to working with the iWG and the SWATeams as this recommendation is pursued.
Sincerely,
Morgan B. Johnston
Associate Director of Sustainability, F&S
I am providing an updated schedule for the RFP related to a wind-power PPA for UIUC. The change reflects a request by one vendor to extend the response period by one week. Because of that, we have made other slight modifications to target dates for some of the milestones, but the original completion date of April 30, 2015 is maintained.
If you have any question, please let me know. Dan Mortland
Morgan,
I understand the deadline for submitting the RFI was extended until September 5 based on the requests from some vendors for more time to prepare their responses.
UA / PEI will be forwarding more info and will be looking to keep the overall schedule from being extended.
Thanks
Kent
Attached please find the first formal recommendation from the iCAP Working Group (iWG) on the Wind Power Purchase Agreement.
See attached minutes from the iCAP Working Group.
The iCAP Working Group (iWG) met on August 28th, 2014, to discuss the EGen001 Wind PPA recommendation, and they started the assessment for this recommendation.
See the attached file for complete assessment with comments from all the iWG members.
See SWATeam recommendation EGen001 Wind PPA here.
The SWATeam recommendation complete with the iWG Assessment with comments from all the iWG members was transmitted to the Facilities & Services on August 28th, 2014.
For any future updates on this item, please visit the Wind Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) project.
See iWG Assessment for EGen001 Wind PPA here.
See SWATeam recommendation EGen001 Wind PPA here.
Prairieland Energy Inc (PEI) provided the attached schedule for the Request for Information (RFI) and the potential Request for Proposals (RFP) for a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA).
On July 29, the iCAP Working Group (iWG) met for the first time. Read more about that first meeting in the attached minutes.
