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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - City Council - 10/07/2020SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL 7 OCTOBER 2020 The South Burlington City Council held a regular meeting on Wednesday, 7 October 2020, at 5:30 p.m., via Go to Meeting remote participation. MEMBERS PRESENT: H. Riehle, Chair; M. Emery, T. Barritt, T. Chittenden, D. Kaufman ALSO PRESENT: K. Dorn, City Manager; T. Hubbard, Deputy City Manager; I. Blanchard, Project Manager; L. Bresee , K. Pollito, M. J. Reale, K. Epstein, M. Mittag, 1. Additions, deletions or changes in the order of Agenda items: No changes were made to the Agenda. 2. Council Discussion and Possible Award of a Contract for Renewable Energy Generation and Storage at 180 Market Street: Ms. Blanchard explained that the building as designed would support a solar array. The city had believed that it could use net metering but a legal opinion is that this is not an option. Ms. Blanchard explained that with net metering, if you generate more power than what you use, you sell it back to Green Mountain Power, and its value is deducted from your bill. Before COVID, the city began to look at batteries as an option. An RFQ was put out, and two quotes were received. These provided modeling. Ms. Blanchard explained that the building has a higher fire rating because it is 3 stories and has an unusual construction method. The city was told that if something was put on the roof after a fire spray, it would violate the warranty, and the contractor won’t warranty the roof under that condition. The city wants to do the fire spraying after the solar panels are installed so that the fireproofing would be under warranty. After the city got the proposals, they asked the vendors when they could install the panels. One vendor can do this within the timeline. SunCommon would so all the needed engineering and installation. The city can then address the battery separately. The two systems would work together. Mr. Barritt asked if there is an option for a smaller solar array. Ms. Blanchard said that is possible. Mr. Barritt asked the cost with no battery and a smaller array. Ms. Blanchard said there would be some “clipping” with this array. She said the Council is being asked for $265,000 at this time. Mr. Dorn added there would be a cost of $190,000 for the battery, but that is not being done yet. CITY COUNCIL 7 OCTOBER 2020 PAGE 2 Ms. Riehle asked whether there is a warranty for the battery. She noted it would have a lifetime of 20 years and asked whether it would be obsolete within 20 years. Ms. Blanchard said the roof won’t be obsolete for 30-40 years. The batteries decline in efficiency at 1-1/2% a year. The warranty is for 20 years. SunCommon would include all the maintenance for those 20 years. At that point, it is anticipated that some of the technology will change. Mr. Mittag asked if the panels will be fixed or angled so snow slides off. Ms. Blanchard said they would be angled but not a steep angle. Mr. Dorn said nobody would go up there unless they were sufficiently trained. Mr. Barritt said he is not ready to make a decision. He was hesitant to dive into the battery option if there is the possibility of net metering in the future. Mr. Mittag said it would be short- sighted not to store the energy. Mr. Kaufman asked the payback time without net metering. Ms. Blanchard said 15 years. Mr. Kaufman said it was not a hard decision. If net metering becomes available, the city would be ahead of the game sooner. Mr. Epstein said the Energy Committee definitely supports this option. Mr. Barritt asked for more time to read through all the information. Members agreed to an email vote by 10 a.m. Friday. Mr. Barritt moved to give members time to consider the resolution and to vote on it by 10 a.m. Friday, 9 October via email to the City Manager. Mr. Chittenden seconded. The motion passed unanimously via a roll call vote. Ms. Blanchard agreed to provide any technical information to members. In the vote that followed via email on 9 October 2020, the Council unanimously approved the award of the contract for renewable energy generation to SunCommon. The special meeting was then considered adjourned.