Jefferson City Council discusses several items/Coltrane Carlson-Raccoon Valley Radio
The city of Jefferson could become greener in some of its uses of electricity.
City Administrator Scott Peterson says Red Lion Renewables made a presentation to the City Council at their meeting earlier this month about doing an analysis of possible locations for solar panels. Peterson points out that this company has done over 50 projects across the state, working with school districts and cities, with one of the closest being the city of Perry. 
Peterson explains the benefits of utilizing the services of Red Loin, where they would be responsible for installing and maintaining all of the necessary equipment, while the city would enter into an energy purchase agreement.
“The good part about that for the city is that the cost per kilowatt hour from Red Lion is less than what we would’ve otherwise paid to Alliant. So by doing this, there’s some amount of cost savings to the community. We looked at 11 different sites around the community (and) totaling all of those sites together, we look to have an annual savings of around $27,000.”  
Peterson describes the key aspect is what their current power supplier, Alliant Energy, would allow for, which is net-metering.
“We continue to buy Alliant power when it’s needed, but if we ever generate too much, the power goes back onto the system, and then Red Lion is paid the retail rate for that power. So it’s just net-meters and electrons in and out.” 
It was also mentioned at the meeting that Red Lion would also be eligible for the federal tax credits, if construction starts next year. The City Council set a public hearing for the company to gain access to city-owned easements for those impacted areas on January 13th at 5:30pm in the City Hall Council Chambers. 
 
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