The gated driveway leading to the Guam International Country Club in Dededo on June 13, 2024.
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The gated driveway leading to the Guam International Country Club in Dededo on June 13, 2024.
A deal that would see a 57.4-megawatt solar farm on the old Guam International Country Club property selling energy to the Guam Power Authority is on hold, for now, with the Consolidated Commission on Utilities seeking more details about the agreement.
GPA presented a resolution to approve the 25- to 30-year energy purchase deal with a consortium of Power Solutions and Korea’s Top-Tier at a Tuesday evening CCU meeting.
But CCU Chairman Francis Santos raised questions about the agreement, which he said commissioners did not have enough time to review.
Santos said the agreement was a part of about 1,000 pages of documents for different projects that the CCU received the night before the meeting.
Commissioners tabled the matter and will come back next Wednesday to decide it.
Plans to turn the GICC golf course in Dededo into a solar farm have been in the public eye for years now, with the over 12-acre property sitting on CHamoru Land Trust property.
GICC was around $988,000 behind on rent at one point. A golf course-to-solar farm switch is meant to keep the lease going and money flowing to the Land Trust.
Despite opposition from multiple Dededo residents, the conversion has approval from the Land Trust and the Legislature.
But the solar consortium still needs a deal with GPA to actually provide the power before it can open. GPA will purchase energy from the solar facility, and then sell it back to power customers.
Besides four separate solar sites on the old Dededo golf course, the solar consortium will also put an almost 5 MW solar facility on a property near the back gate to Andersen Air Force Base in Yigo, GPA General Manager John Benavente said Tuesday.
“This facility actually will hook up directly to the … power plant and to an underground line right from the golf course to the area,” Benavente told the CCU.
Solar facilities will also come with 35.5 MW worth of batteries that can be used to store energy and shift it to nighttime use.
The total 62 MW from the golf course and Yigo solar farm will come on top of various other solar projects GPA has in the pipeline, Benavente said.
“With your award today, that will give us about a total of 357 MW of renewables with 146 MW of batteries,” he said. “All of this will basically be online in 2029.”
That solar capacity would bring GPA’s power generation capacity right up to about 50% renewables, according to the general manager.
More renewables would mean less need to raise the fuel surcharges for customers when oil goes above $120 per barrel, as it is now, Benavente said.
But Santos, during the discussion, said that GPA had not shown the resolution approving the deal to commissioners at a work session held last week.
“So this is the first time we’ve actually seen, and we’ll be able to discuss it,” Santos said.
It is common practice for the power authority to present resolutions to the CCU a week ahead of the meeting when the resolution will be decided. GPA leadership will sometimes present resolutions that aren’t ready ahead of time on the day of the meetings.
Benavente apologized for the delay in presenting the agreement, but said it was thoroughly reviewed.
He said the project was time-sensitive, and the solar operators would need to meet certain timelines to get tax credits.
Power Solutions and Korea’s Top-Tier have to start construction by July 4, GPA legal counsel Marianne Woloschuk added.
Chairman Santos also took issue with a still-pending easement agreement between GPA and the Land Trust for a power substation that will sit on just under an acre of the golf course property.
He said that detail was not communicated ahead of the Tuesday evening meeting.
Benavente said the substations will be operated by GPA, in perpetuity.
But power authority staff noted that the actual agreement for the substation was not yet approved by the Land Trust, and was on the CLTC’s agenda for a Thursday decision.
At one point during the meeting, Santos remarked of the solar consortium, “there was talk out there that they lost their backer.”
“Now they have a backer that’s great. Can we honestly say that you’ve done due diligence on the backer on the procurement team to come here?” Santos asked.
“I can honestly say, Mr. Chairman, that I believe that the way it’s set up, the approvals and reviews that we have made satisfies me that they can move forward,” Benavente replied.
Commissioner Michael Limtiaco suggested that the CCU recess their meeting and take more time to review the details of the solar deal.
Santos said he wanted a copy of the CLTC lease for the solar project.
Commissioners will come back at 5 p.m. June 3 to decide on the matter.
Reach reporter Joe Taitano II at JTaitano@guampdn.com.
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While we might want alternative sources of energy, we also should not accept the destruction of land of land for solar panels. Remember Marbo Cave? Put the darn things on the rooftops of existing hotels and commercial buildings and those under construction. Put them on paved parking lots, like garage-shelters. Stop destroying land for lucrative contracts. I hope neighbors are keeping good lawyers and reach out to national and international organizations that can help them hold the contractors and agencies liable for health and safety when the illnesses, lack of sleep and other harms start surfacing. Is it worth the risks? Let’s see who goes on record.
They (CLTC and the Legislature) should’ve proposed that property to better use like the development of housing for the underserved people of Guam! The housing ownership housing is a big crisis that the government is totally ignoring.
Honestly, I don’t trust Francis Santos nor JB.
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