RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) – Richmond is considering a power purchase agreement with Secure Solar Futures that would place solar panels on roughly 40 city-owned buildings at no upfront cost to taxpayers.
Like most Virginians, the city gets its electricity from Dominion Energy, and it is not immune to rising costs.
“We saw an increase of 23.5% on our electric accounts on July 1. It’ll be another 11% next year,” Richmond’s Office of Sustainability Energy Program Manager Dawn Oleksy said.
Typically, installation costs are the barrier for people getting solar panels.
Under the proposed deal, Secure Solar Futures would finance, install, and maintain solar panels on selected city-owned buildings over the next 25 years.
The city would pay for the electricity generated on those buildings as it is used.
The city selects buildings based on age, surrounding trees, and how the environment around each site could change over time.
Targeted locations include police precincts, fire stations, libraries, community centers and more.
“The solar will allow us to keep our rates down because they’re locked in,” she said. “We can budget for that more easily because we know what the rates will be.”
Richmond is not starting from scratch. Richmond Public Schools signed a similar agreement with Secure Solar Futures in 2019, placing panels on 10 buildings.
Oleksy said that deal has saved RPS more than $1 million in utility costs to date. While it’s just a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of the budget, it comes at a time when every penny counts.
Other counties, including Chesterfield already have similar agreements.
Right now, Richmond only has solar panels on T.B. Smith Community Center, which was done with funds from the American Rescue Plan Act.
“We have a net zero carbon emissions goal by 2050,” she said. “And so clean energy is really important to us.”
The clock is ticking for Richmond to jump at the opportunity.
The agreement will go before City Council in September, and must get adopted then, or Secure Solar Futures will move on to other customers.
If it does go through, Oleksy says panels would likely start going up in 2027.
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