By Louie St. George III
While Superior Water, Light and Power unveiled its first community solar garden with a ribbon-cutting last October, the project was years in the making. Joscelyn Skandel, manager for regulatory compliance, policy and rates at SWL&P, said initial discussions started around 2015. Planning had really ramped up by 2017.
Even back then, residents were asking about solar, which hinted at potentially robust demand. The ensuing application process was arduous. Finally, in 2020, SWL&P received approval from the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin to move forward with the solar garden at the corner of North 28th Street and Hammond Avenue. Everything was all set – until it wasn’t.
“As you know, there were other things going on in 2020,” Skandel says, the implication as clear as a cloudless day.
COVID-19, of course. Superior would have to wait. Three years – and countless adjustments – later, the sunny source of energy became a reality.
“Coming out of COVID, it was kind of like, ‘OK, now what are we going to do?’ ” Skandel remembers. “We really almost had to start from scratch.”
One thing that didn’t change was Superior residents’ appetite for solar. Before the community garden was even finalized, customers had already subscribed to 80 percent of its output. The remaining 20 percent was a breeze to sell.
“Now we have quite the wait list,” Skandel says.
Here’s how it works: Customers sign a 25-year contract and subscribe to one or more blocks; a block costs approximately $2,400 (for all 25 years) and equals one kilowatt (KW) of the garden’s 470-KW capacity. An average residential consumer subscribes to four blocks, though that number can go up or down based on usage. If a customer isn’t using enough energy to justify four blocks, their subscription may be reduced to three. The goal is to maximize the garden’s capacity so there is no wasted energy.
There are 1,300 panels in what could be described as an unconventional design for a solar garden. Superior’s layout features long and narrow rows, whereas the norm is wider and shorter, closer to a square than a rectangle. The 470 KWs produced by those 1,300 panels are enough to power 115 homes. The actual number of subscribers – 80 – isn’t quite that high, but only because some of them are commercial customers with greater energy needs. Essentia Health, National Bank of Commerce and Kari Toyota are among the largest subscribers.
“Customers can point to it and say, ‘It’s renewable energy generation right in my backyard.’”
– Joscelyn Skandel, manager for regulatory compliance,
policy and rates – SWL&P
The best part, or at least one of them? Solar garden rates are locked in for the duration of the contract. If you have four blocks, that’s about $9,600 for electricity in the ensuing 25 years, or $32 per month. There could be an additional cost during months when not enough energy is produced by subscribers’ blocks. Conversely, during especially sunny months, when more energy is produced than what the subscriber needs, the excess can be “banked” and used at any time within the next year.
According to an SWL&P brochure highlighting the project: “While participating customers may initially pay more than their current SWL&P bill, the solar garden rates will be fixed for 25 years. This means that participating customers can ‘hedge’ against possible future increases in base energy costs by locking in the solar garden subscription rates for 25 years.”
Energy costs, of course, tend to go up, especially during a quarter-century.
There are three payment options. They include paying for all 25 years upfront, paying a flat monthly fee and paying according to usage. The latter is the least common.
When the solar garden went online last fall, it marked the first time Superior had generated its own power since 1981. The community has embraced the addition.
“Customers can point to it and say, ‘It’s renewable energy generation right in my backyard,’ ” Skandel says.
Benefits of participating in a community solar project include lower electric bills, no maintenance and no space required to install your own panels. It’s also environmentally friendly – solar power is natural, renewable (yes, even in the Twin Ports) and clean – and can increase home values.
These reasons help to explain why a record amount of solar power was added in the United States in 2023. According to a report from the Solar Energy Industries Association and Wood Mackenzie, “more than half of the electricity generating capacity added to the U.S. grid in 2023 was solar power.” The report went on to note that 2023 represented “the first time in 80 years that renewable energy sources accounted for more than half of the additions to grid capacity in the United States.”
Skandel was asked if she was surprised at the response to solar in Superior, where people were in a hurry to subscribe to the community garden even if they didn’t fully understand the process. But, really, what more do you need to know beyond lower electric bills and better for the environment?
“You want to be able to personally help combat climate change, and this was a way to do it. This was a way we would be able to take part in it. It’s been a long time coming.”
– Tom Ledin, customer
“I think I was more surprised that there were so many people interested in solar but didn’t quite understand solar,” Skandel says. “It’s a different thought process. People are really curious – how does it work? It was a lot of one-on-one conversations. It was a lot of education. And I think that will come with time. People are just starting to get into solar, especially in northern Wisconsin. This isn’t Arizona, where the sun shines all the time, but there are still benefits.”
‘A long time coming’
Tom and Cindy Ledin of South Superior have eagerly awaited those benefits. Tom says their home, which they’ve lived in for 45 years, has older shingles and an aging roof. It simply wasn’t a good fit for solar panels. Hence the excitement for the community garden.
Tom is 72. He paid for the full 25 years up front, “though I really don’t expect to be around that long.” The 25-year contract may seem like a deterrent, but there are options for getting out of the program without penalty. One of them is to gift the subscription to someone else. Customers also can relinquish their subscription to SWL&P, which will purchase it at a depreciated amount.
The Ledins tracked the community garden from start to finish. When the pandemic stymied any progress that had been made, Tom even emailed SWL&P for an update.
“I’m 72 years old and I was starting to wonder if I would be around long enough to see it built,” he says. “Now, I’m pretty happy to be a part of it.”
That happiness goes beyond simply saving money on electricity. Solar power doesn’t produce air pollution or greenhouse gases. For the Ledins, who have four children and six grandchildren, that was a significant draw. If they could do something to reduce their carbon footprint, why not?
“I think it’s a good investment in doing something for them,” Tom said of his grandkids. “We do have a problem with climate change, and fossil fuels contribute to that. We want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. You want to be able to personally help combat climate change, and this was a way to do it. This was a way we would be able to take part in it. It’s been a long time coming.”
Tom says the power generated from their four blocks nearly covered all of April’s electric costs. In the summer, they, like other users, will be able to store up power for the winter months.
The Twin Ports’ historically mild winter likely led to better solar production than expected. Some years, it feels like we can go through January and February without ever seeing the sun. That wasn’t the case this time around.
Whenever the sun is out, Tom and Cindy have a familiar exchange.
“My wife and I look at each other and say, ‘Honey, we’re making good electricity today,’ ” Tom joked.
Fire department finds big savings, too
In Superior, SWL&P isn’t the only public entity pushing solar.
On a recent spring morning, Fire Chief Camron Vollbrecht clicked to an open tab on his computer screen. It featured a dashboard showing real-time production data for the solar array mounted on the roof of the Superior Fire Department’s (SFD) headquarters at 3326 Tower Avenue. Vollbrecht admits that he checks the numbers frequently. Who can blame him? Essentially, what he’s seeing on the screen is money being saved.
“So far today, we’ve made just about 50 KW hours of energy, so we’ve made enough already this morning to power your house for a couple days,” he says.
“For us, it equals a pretty good savings. We’re estimating about $16,000 a year in savings.”
– Camron Vollbrecht, Fire Chief – City of Superior
As Vollbrecht talked inside, the sky outside was clear and blue, and figured to remain that way throughout the afternoon and evening. The chief expected his department’s 320 panels to produce more energy that day than any other, since they became operational last Oct. 23. The electric part of the SWL&P bill for SFD headquarters in March was $128. Now, compare that to March 2023, when the amount was $775, and you can understand why Vollbrecht enjoys checking the dashboard as often as he does.
The savings is even more impressive when you consider that SFD added two electric vehicles, upping the energy consumption compared to the previous year. Yet the difference for a single month was $647. Those are dollars that Vollbrecht and his staff can use elsewhere.
“For us, it equals a pretty good savings,” he says. “We’re estimating about $16,000 a year in savings.”
Each of the department’s 320 panels are two feet by three feet. The 150-KW system is estimated to produce 171,000 KW hours per year. For comparison, an average house uses about 10,500 KW hours a year. “We make that in 10 days in the summer,” Vollbrecht says.
And while one of the few knocks on solar is that the panels aren’t aesthetically pleasing, the ones at SFD headquarters aren’t visible from ground level. Nor are they connected to the roof; instead they are ballasted in place and anchored down.
The initial cost for the system was $360,000, which sounds like a lot of money. And it is. But additional context is necessary. Such as the fact that, right out of the gate, SFD earned a 30 percent rebate from the federal government, knocking $108,000 off the price tag. An $18,300 rebate from Wisconsin Focus on Energy was next, and Vollbrecht is waiting to hear on two others. When it’s all said and done, the $360,000 project could be halved. With annual savings of $16,000, payback will be between 10-15 years. “Then you’re making money,” Vollbrecht says, which must be music to taxpayers’ ears.
“And that’s assuming electricity never increases in price,” he adds in jest, noting that the panels are warrantied for 30 years.
Saving money is nice, of course, but the chief is similarly excited about another benefit of solar.
“My system tells me that so far we’ve avoided 24 tons of carbon dioxide,” he says proudly. “We’re reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, which isn’t a bad thing either.”
Vollbrecht says it made the most sense for the department to kick off its foray into solar at headquarters. With no trees on the property, the sun can do its thing unobstructed all day long. Given the initial success, it likely won’t be long before SFD’s other two stations – at 723 Hammond Avenue and 2531 East Fifth Street – also are powered by solar.
“Solar will be one of our goals with those two stations, to make sure they’re sustainable down the road and as efficient as possible,” Vollbrecht says.
Vollbrecht is thankful for the foresight of city leadership, to see the value in the project despite a cost estimate that could have turned them off.
“It was well supported with our city government, both by city councilors and the mayor,” Vollbrecht says.
The vision for solar started with former chief Scott Gordon in 2022, and bids were solicited starting in early 2023. The system went live 10 months later, about the same time as SWL&P’s community garden. During long sunny days in the summer, it will make over a megawatt hour of electricity each day, says Vollbrecht, who officially took over for Gordon at the end of 2022.
SFD will bolster its environmental friendliness by replacing a diesel fire truck with an electric fire truck in 2026. P.S.