On May 20th, 2019 all three Lakewood City Council At-Large Members, Meghan George, Tom Bullock and myself, Tristan Rader, introduce a potential plan to bring up to 1 Megawatt of solar power to many of the municipal buildings in Lakewood.
Lakewood has been given the unique opportunity to partner with Cuyahoga County, and the County’s contractor Enerlogics, to do solar panel installation at no upfront cost to the city. This could reduce our reliance on the grid by as much as 20%, or 1.3 Mw per year, while reducing our energy bills. With this specific proposal, the cost savings to taxpayers could be more than $550,000 over the life of the system. Again, with no capital investment of our own. This is accomplished by working with the County and contracting with a third-party owner/installer to buy the net-metered power we generated on our rooftops, at a reduced rate. Here is the presentation.
After a few years the city will be given the option to purchase the panels if we so choose.
Most importantly, we will be doing our part to contribute to a clean, affordable, and sustainable planet. As, renewable energy provides substantial benefits for our climate, our health, our economy, and community.
This just one option that we would like the city to consider. There are other ways to do municipal solar. We could buy our own solar panels, for instance. We believe it is worth weighing our options but also moving the discussion forward, with purpose.
We are planning to have members of Enerlogics and the County Suitability Department present the proposed plan at an upcoming meeting. Details will be provided once a time and date are set.
