Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
Barely two months after the City of Monticello submitted a lengthy plan to the state for the conversion of the wastewater treatment plant on Mamie Scott Drive into a self-sufficient solar energy generating facility, the funding for the plan has been approved, setting the stage for the second phase of the $2.5 million project.
Joe Mittauer, president of the consultant engineering firm of Mittauer & Associates, informed the Monticello City Council of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) decision on Tuesday evening, March 3.
Mittauer expressed pleasure that the FDEP had approved the facilities plan and its funding so rapidly, noting that his firm had submitted the paperwork to the agency on Wednesday, Jan. 8 and the approval had been issued on Tuesday, Feb. 4. It had been his firm's expectation, he said, that it would take the state agency months to respond.
“It sailed right through,” Mittauer said of the application.
He said next would come the design phase, for which his firm had already applied to the FDEP for funding. His expectation, he said, was that it would take 45 to 60 for the process to be completed and the design funding approved.
“By May 1 we should start the design work,” Mittauer said. “We then expect to have the design work and permitting done by the fall. That's the plan and goal at least.”
Following the design phase, which will cost $185,000 in engineering fees (the city's share is about $38,00), will come the construction phase, which entails the installation of a 500 kW direct current photovoltaic (PV) solar array system at the wastewater treatment plant to make the operation self-sufficient.
Mittauer reminded the council that the FDEP would fund 80 percent of the three-phase project via grants, with the city responsible for the other 20 percent in the form of a low interest loan payable over a 20-year period.
All told, the project's expected cost is $2,572,800, of which the city's 20-percent portion will amount to about $523,600.
The conversion from electric to solar power expected to save the city about $28,000 annually in operating costs.
Earlier, during the planning phase discussion, Mittauer shared figures with the council showing that the city's average power costs increased 11.6 percent between 2018 and 2019 due to higher energy consumption and a rate increase. The trend of increasing costs, moreover, was one that was likely to continue, he said. Especially, he added, if the state implemented a carbon tax, as legislators often talked of doing.
“If a carbon tax comes, you can see a 20-percent rise in cost,” Mittauer said.
Figures Mittauer then shared with the council showed the city having an average electric bill of $5,031 monthly, which amounted to $60,370 annually. The solar array, he said, should produce an annual net saving of $25,080 for the city, once the loan payments and operational and maintenance costs were deducted from the $60,370.
“The annual debt service and operation and maintenance of the system will be fully offset by the savings in power cost,” Mittauer said, adding that, factoring in the grant amount, the system would pay for itself over nine years.
Solar arrays, according to the experts, are supposed to have a useful life of 40 years and be capable of withstanding winds of up to 150 mph, should a hurricane strike the area.
Funding solar projects is something new that the FDEP is doing in an effort to help small small communities become more self sufficient and sustaining.