The city of Fayetteville officially wrapped up Earth Week yesterday, as city officials gathered the public to flip the switch on a new solar array near Nashville, Arkansas. City Environmental Director and Energy Manager Peter Nierengarten says the new array brings them very close to a perhaps ambitious goal.
"Back in 2018, when the City Council first adopted that clean energy goal, the city buildings were supplied by 16% clean energy, and getting to 100% clean energy seemed like an insurmountable task. But now, eight years later, we're going to flip the switch on the city's third large ground-mounted solar array. We also have two new rooftop solar arrays on our PD headquarters and on the recycling and trash collections building. And here we are today at 93% clean energy."
This new array's activation is a product of a 25-year solar services agreement. The new solar panels use old net metering laws to offset electricity from more than two dozen city facilities. Nierengarten says that reduces municipal dependence on the grid and saves an estimated $7 million over the life of the contract.
"Huge thank you goes to Integrity Energy Partners, Southwestern Electric Power Company and the city's accounting team for helping to navigate and negotiate all of those utility bills. With the addition of this newest array, the city of Fayetteville will have over 14 megawatts of solar on city lands and facilities. That solar will generate 30,000 megawatt hours per year of clean electricity and will offset over 425,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions over the next 25 years."
It would take a lot of work to do that yourself.
"You would need to ride a bicycle 1.2 billion — billion with a B — miles to offset that much carbon."
Fayetteville Mayor Molly Rawn: "Even you can’t do that.”
"No, ma'am. This is also the equivalent of over half a million people participating in curbside recycling programs. This new solar will also prevent the burning of over 16,000 tons of coal per year.”
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