120-acre solar panel project coming to Pocatello: Pocatello Regional Airport (KPIH), Idaho

POCATELLO — A 120-acre solar panel project valued at more than $75 million is destined for the northern edge of the Pocatello Regional Airport. It’s the first of its kind for the Southeastern Idaho area, but almost certainly not the last.

The Pocatello City Council approved a lease agreement with Pocatello Solar 1 LLC (an Intermountain Energy Partners subsidiary) in November. The Ketchum, Idaho-based company is already under contract to sell its energy to Idaho Power. The company is now in the process of obtaining all the necessary approvals from the Idaho Public Utilities Commission. Those approvals are expected to be finalized after Dec. 19 and everything should be up and running by Dec. 31, 2016.

“It’s a good little green energy program we are getting into here,” said city of Pocatello legal counsel Kirk Bybee. “It benefits the city and it benefits the taxpayers.”

The city of Pocatello will get $1,500 per year for the first two years while the solar panels are being built. For the next 20 years, the city of Pocatello will be paid 3.4 percent of the operation’s gross revenues.

In case it wants to expand its operation, Intermountain Energy Partners also has the first right of refusal on the 145 acres west of the airfield. The lease agreement also gives the company an option for a 15-year renewal.

According to Jonathan Monschke, director of development for Intermountain Energy Partners, the panels are essentially a commercial-grade version of the modules that people are used to seeing on rooftops. No taller than the average man, the panels measure 3 feet by 5 feet and will have a track between each row wide enough for the average car to drive through.

“When you drive by on the road, you are not going to see much,” Monschke said. “But when you fly over you will see quite a bit.”

The project is one of four that Intermountain Energy Partners is developing across Idaho.

While the future growth of the solar project is set, the amount of revenue it will generate for Pocatello is still unclear.

“The rate (Idaho Power) charges changes over time,” said Idaho Power spokesperson Brad Bowlin regarding the price Pocatello Solar 1 can charge for its energy.

According to the contract with Idaho Power, Pocatello Solar 1 could get as much as $115 per megawatt hour when there is a large demand for energy, or as little as $34 per megawatt hour when there is a small local demand for energy. In its early days, the project aims to produce about 2,531 megawatt hours in a month.

That estimate is based on a lot of number crunching.

“We take all of that (weather) data that goes back 30 or 40 years,” Monschke said. “We take the average number of sunny days and the average temperatures and we plug all that into a computer program.”

From that, Monschke says, the solar developer can predict with a reasonable amount of certainty how much energy they can produce.

Intermountain Energy Partners was created this year after two investment companies merged. The Idaho business is developing 500 megawatts worth of solar projects across the United States with 221 megawatts of that development located in Idaho. These projects are valued at “several hundred million dollars” according to the private company’s investor information. Intermountain Energy Partners largest Idaho project is being developed between Boise and Mountain Home.

- Source:  http://www.idahostatejournal.com