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<br /> <br />Memo <br /> <br />To: Mayor and Council <br /> Manager Lotter <br />From: Jason Hicks, Assistant Parks and Recreation Director <br />Subject: New Brighton Community Center Solar Options <br />Date: June 16, 2016 <br /> <br />Per the direction of the City Council at the March 8 Work Session, staff was <br />directed to continue to work with Trane to research solar options for the New <br />Brighton Community Center (NBCC). These options include installing fixtures <br />that utilize solar to illuminate the building to utilizing a solar energy system to <br />provide electricity for NBCC. <br /> <br />One consideration to review is solar lighting. It would reduce the amount of <br />energy required to illuminate NBCC. There currently are skylights that provide <br />light to the common areas of the facility. Natural light is generally perceived to be <br />of higher quality lighting than artificial light. One negative to solar lighting is that <br />it would create new holes in the current roof, a second is both solar lighting and a <br />solar energy system cannot be used in conjunction with each other. Because the <br />benefits do not outweigh the negatives, staff recommends not installing additional <br />solar lighting at NBCC. <br /> <br />Another consideration is to utilize a solar energy system to provide energy to <br />power NBCC. Current projections used a 200,000 kWh solar energy system, <br />which would provide about 20% of the energy used at NBCC. There are three <br />different ways solar energy could be provided: <br /> <br /> Lease to Own <br /> Community Solar Subscription <br /> Power Purchase Agreement <br /> <br />A lease to own option is involves finding a private vendor to design and construct <br />a solar energy system on City property, in this case NBCC. The City then leases <br />the equipment from the vendor and utilizes the energy. The standard term is 15 <br />years, and the equipment has a life expectancy of 25 years. This provides 10 <br />years of using energy without a cost to produce or consume. Because the