Update of Geronimo Energy Solar Garden Agreement

In November 2016, MAPS entered into an agreement with SunEdison (now Geronimo Energy) to become part of two solar gardens.  One garden is near Courtland, MN in Nicollet County and the other is between Mankato and Mapleton in Blue Earth County. Other entities involved in these gardens include Blue Earth County, private corporations, and a small amount of residential.  The district committed to a 15 year arrangement with options to renew in years 14 and 19 for another five years respectfully. Each month, the electricity generated from the District’s portion of these solar gardens is transmitted to Xcel. Xcel, in turn, gives the District an energy credit on our bill.  The District then pays Geronimo a fee to operate these gardens, and for the cost of building them. The dollar savings the District receives from Xcel through the credits is bigger than the fee the District pays to Geronimo. Therefore, the District realizes an overall cost savings on our utility bills. In FY 19, the district saved $37,255 on its electricity bill through this program.  Units of government such as school districts are ideal clients for these projects because the vendors are looking for long term stable high volume energy users. This updated subscription remains consistent with the existing 15 year subscription with the option to extend in 5 year increments. 

 

The energy credits the district receives from Xcel is based on the district's level of commitment to use our solar subscription.  The current level of the district's commitment is 98 percent of our average annual electricity usage. This updated agreement with Geronimo Energy allows the district to increase that level of commitment to 110 percent of our average annual energy usage.  By increasing this commitment level to 110 percent, the district will receive an additional estimated annual savings of $5,544.

The administration recommends approval of the updated agreement with Geronimo Energy.