Bedford Town Council approves solar farm
Lynchburg News and Advance
By Rachael Smith.
BEDFORD — Next summer, the town of Bedford could be seeing a brand new solar farm installed on town property — a first for any municipality in Virginia.
The Bedford Town Council voted unanimously to approve the solar farm, which would be located on 20 acres on Draper Road, adjacent to the old town landfill.
Council Member Bob Carson was absent.
“We are excited to see this come about,” Director of the town’s Electric Department John Wagner said. “It was a long road to get here with analysis and negotiations to reach this point. It’s been a good combination for us, the developer and our customers.”
The developer, O2 emc, based out of North Carolina will develop the utility scale solar farm in partnership with the Bedford electric Department in the town.
O2 emc will lease the land from the town.
The ordinance has been prepared in accordance with an open request for proposals process in which O2 was identified as the successful developer.
“We have been receiving proposals for over two years,” Wagner said the town received about 10 proposals. “At some point we mutually found each other. We selected them based on their performance and qualifications as well as passion for the project and lowest price.”
That price comes in at the tune of 6.19 cents per kilowatt hour.
The town is going to acquire a power purchase agreement or a PPA with O2 — a contract between the two parties where the developer generates the electricity and the buyer purchases it.
Project Development Manager for O2 Logan Stephens said though the business is located and active in North Carolina, there was an interest to expand into Virginia if the right opportunity came along.
“It seemed like a good fit,” he said. “We started conversations with the town and prepared a formal bid. Over the last few weeks we were notified that we were awarded and we are excited and grateful and anxious to get started and get construction on the farm next year,” he said.
The town currently receives eight percent of renewable energy from the Hydro Plant in Snowden but the solar farm will increase that percentage to 10 or 11 percent, Wagner said.
“We’re excited to add this to our renewable energy portfolio,” he said. “We’re excited to reach that point.”
Stephens said construction should start on the farm around March or April and should be complete by the end of June.
It will be a three megawatt solar farm and will capture energy from the sun and turn it into electricity, which will be exported onto the town’s electric distribution system. All of the power generated will be put on the grid and can be used by local homes and business.
Stephens said customers will not experience any change in payment for their electric bill.
Wagner said the department is still formulating a plan to offer the service to customers, which will not be available until next summer.
“We may blend it in with other energy options, we haven’t decided,” Wagner said. “We would have to gauge if there is interest from customers.”
Stephens said the solar farm is an “attractive” use of the land, which has been affected by the landfill for a number of years.
“The town is happy to find a productive use for that land over a long time period,” he said. “It won’t create any noise or smell and doesn’t require services of water or sewer. It is one of the best possible uses of the land that’s been sitting there pretty much unused.”
The rows of solar panels will be around 15-feet high at most and would track sunrays and run north to south and follow the sun east to west generating the highest amount of power from the lowest amount of space, Stephens said.
