By BOB GUSTIN | For The Democrat
An array of power-producing solar panels will be erected in the lower level parking lot of the Brown County Public Library early next year.
The library’s board of directors recently approved the $841,920 project, which is expected to be operational by June 1, 2022. Construction should begin in January, according to Tim Kelley, head of the board’s building committee. Energy conservation measures, including retrofitting lighting in the library to LED, is included in the pricetag.
The project will be funded without additional cost to taxpayers. Instead, it will be paid for with money which would otherwise have been spent on electricity, along with existing funds which have been saved over the years for improvement projects, and a planned fund-raising campaign. Some of the funding will come from the Tesh Wickard endowment, which was donated to the library and restricted to physical improvements.
It is expected to pay for itself over a 15-year period by producing much of the power the library uses, along with savings gained through energy conservation. The 324 solar panels in the project are expected to produce up to 162,000 kilowatt hours of electricity annually. Carport-like structures will be built on either side of the existing center grass median in the lower parking lot.
“Libraries have long been forces for good in their communities,” said Library Director Stori Snyder. “This solar project allows us to scale that up. Now we can be a force for good for the planet.”
Kelley said he thinks it’s important for the library to be at the forefront of technology, and long-term savings will benefit taxpayers.
“I’d like to thank the board for their overall support on the project and I look forward to seeing this come to fruition. I also appreciate the support the community has given,” he said.
The board signed a contract with PSG Energy Group of Indianapolis to manage the project, which will include installing chargers for electric cars, the LED retrofit, updating building system controls and annual operation and maintenance costs. RBI Solar of Cincinnati will install the carport structure and panels.
Electric Plus, with oversight by PSG, will complete the electrical scope of the project to include the electric vehicle chargers.
The library will not have to go through any town approvals, like the Nashville Development Review Commission, for this project because the land is zoned R2.
PSG estimated earlier this summer that after the LED retrofit, updating building automation and installing the solar array, the library could produce 98 percent of the electricity that was used to power the facility in 2019.
The solar array is projected to offset more than 115 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, the equivalent of removing 25 automobiles from the road each year.
A factor in the decision was an upcoming change in Indiana’s law on net metering.
Currently, all investor-owned utilities, including Duke Energy which supplies electricity to the library, must credit the retail price to the library when its solar panels produce more power than the library uses. Laws change in July 2022, and overproduction will then be credited at a significantly lower rate than the retail price. But solar systems in operation before July 2022 will continue to fall under current net metering rules until July 2032.
