Photo provided by Ascension Parish -- The Lamar-Dixon solar project consists of a 300-plus kilowatt rooftop system located on three barns
Photo provided by Ascension Parish --Solar LED pathway lighting system around the southwest lake.
Photo provided by Ascension Parish --Solar LED pathway lighting system around the southwest lake.
Ascension Parish government is considering putting solar panels on the many roofs it owns in hopes of saving taxpayers money on electricity.
A parish councilman says the initiative got its spark after he read news stories about big-box stores that have tried to capitalize on their extensive rooftop square-footage to install solar panels.
"There's going to be money for that sort of thing. What I'd like is to start the discussion to see if it's something the parish could benefit from. We may be able to get grants and funding to put solar panels to reduce our energy costs," Councilman Aaron Lawler said.
There's plenty of federal money to apply for right now. Signed into law last November, President Joe Biden's $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act has set aside a $550 million block grant program for renewable energy and energy efficiency for state and local governments. The Build Back Better pla, which stalled in Congress, had more direct credits for solar power.
An analysis made public in January found big-box stores and shopping malls could generate half of their power needs with the full application of rooftop solar panels. They could generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of 8 million homes and cut 52 million tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere annually, according to Environment America, a collection of state-based environmental advocacy groups.
In the name of cutting greenhouse gas emissions, Walmart and Target have both committed to relying fully on renewable power for their operations by the 2030s. They have been installing rooftop and other solar panels at their stores over the past several years to help reach those goals.
By March, Target had installed rooftop and other solar panels at more than a quarter of its stores, the company says.
In Ascension, it's not climate goals that are driving the look at solar power. It's dollars, cents and opportunity.
Like most parish governments in Louisiana, Ascension owns a variety of sizeable public buildings with plenty of rooftop space: two courthouses, an administrative complex, a public works complex, a jail, a warren of buildings, barns and warehouse-sized structures at the sprawling Lamar-Dixon Expo Center, and other buildings spread across the parish.
Lawler, a Prairieville councilman, is not shy about pressing publicly for his policy ideas and taking the current administration to task. He has sometimes clashed with President Clint Cointment and some on the council in pursuit of those goals.
On Monday, for instance, Lawler and Cointment had a sharp debate about the role and cost of a proposed drainage director position that has remained unfilled for eight months. On Thursday, Lawler was the sole vote against $60,000 in office renovations for the administration, calling them an untimely and unnecessary expense.
Despite those kinds of conflicts with the administration, the solar panel idea appears to have at least piqued the interest of other local officials.
Cointment administration officials say they are willing to explore the availability of grants through President Joe Biden's infrastructure package and other sources.
Patrick Goldsmith, Ascension's chief financial officer, said parish finance staffers are finalizing a 12-month average of what the parish's electrical costs are by building, and plan to use those figures as a baseline to examine what kind of benefit solar panels could bring to the parish's bottom line.
A big part of the examination, he said, will have to look at potential subsidies and how they affect savings. He added that the analysis could be complicated because it may have to involve individual metering of buildings to see how savings might be achieved.
The inquiry may require some expert help, he said.
"So, obviously, a lot of factors, but we're wiling to start that conversation to see if we can save money," Goldsmith told the Parish Council on Thursday.
Photo provided by Ascension Parish -- The Lamar-Dixon solar project consists of a 300-plus kilowatt rooftop system located on three barns
Goldsmith couldn't yet say what the parish spends each year in electricity costs as parish staff were still trying to determine a total figure from power bills spread among a variety of department and facilities.
Several other council members in the same meeting Thursday expressed interest in solar.
Councilman Joel Robert called the concept "a great idea" and set out some of his own goals: consolidating of all the parish's buildings under one power grid, finding a way to sell parish solar power back to utilities, and ensuring the placement of the panels doesn't ruin buildings' architectural aesthetic.
Some parish buildings, like the historic, red brick courthouse in Donaldsonville, have distinctive styles that might clash with the sleek, reflective, rooftop panels.
Robert said the parish may need an architect to look at the design or different kinds of solar technology that are less obtrusive than traditional panels.
GONZALES — Solar panels at the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center are saving Ascension Parish government about $15,000 to $20,000 per month on electricit…
Parish government has already experimented with solar panels. In 2014, the parish installed panels on the roofs of three open-air barns at Lamar-Dixon near Gonzales.
The panels were part of $10.5 million in mitigation projects required under a March 2013 federal consent decree. It settled Clean Air Act violations by the coal-fired Big Cajun II power plant near New Roads.
Officials in the administration of then-Parish President Kenny Matassa said that, by 2015, the rooftop panels and an LED lighting system along a park trail contributed 10% of Lamar-Dixon's power needs. The free energy from the sun was translating into $180,000 to $240,000 in annual savings on electricity, the parish officials said at the time.
The panels remain on the south-facing sides of the pitched roofs for Barns 4, 5 and 6 at Lamar-Dixon.
But Cointment administration officials couldn't say if the panels were still operating or, if they were operating, how much cost-savings the panels were generating for the parish currently. Increases in power demand at Lamar-Dixon and the consolidation of electrical metering there make that calculation difficult, parish officials said.
Council Chairman John Cagnolatti asked Goldsmith to take the lead on the solar power question and Lawler to support those efforts.
Email David J. Mitchell at dmitchell@theadvocate.com.
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