Redwood Electric Cooperative Community Solar
Members interested in green energy or looking to lock in future electricity prices can participate in Redwood Electric Cooperative's Community Solar project. Redwood Electric developed the community solar project to give members that wanted a portion of their energy to come from a renewable source options they could participate in. All the electricity created by the community solar array is used by Redwood Electric members.
What is Community Solar? A Redwood Electric Cooperative's Community Solar project allows members to purchase a portion of the electric generation from a solar array located next to Highwater Ethanol outside of Lamberton. Members have two participation plans to choose from. Participants do not own any of the panels or infrastructure.
What are the benefits?
1. Nothing is installed on your home or property. You have nothing to maintain.
2. Renewable energy from your member owned electric cooperative.
3. You can control the cost of future electricity purchases.
4. Two Convenient Options.
5. Participate with as little as one panel, with a limit of 10 panels per member.
How does it work? Members get either a kWh credit on their monthly bill or pay $.14/kWh based on their portion of the total system production. What you get depends on which option you select. Members do not own panels. Limit 10 panels per member.
How are kWh's assigned to participants? The solar array consists of 448 panels. Each month the total production Redwood Electric Cooperative receives from the array is divided by 448 to determine how many kWh's each panel is allocated. For example: March of 2016 total array production was 18,816. The kWh allocation would have been 42kWh's per panel. The estimated production per panel is around 500kWh's a year. Monthly production will vary by season, with the summer months creating the most electricity and winter months delivering the least.
Renewable Energy Credits (REC's): This project is registered with the Midwest Renewable Energy Tracking System (M-RETS). Basin Electric Power Cooperative, a Redwood Electric power supplier, is the owner of all REC's. The REC's are being used to help South Central Electric meet its Minnesota renewable energy goals. Participating members do not receive renewable energy credits.
Participation Option A: Purchase per panel
Members pay $1,175 per panel (members do not own the panels). Members sign a 20 year license agreement. Participating members get a percentage of the total solar array production each month based on how many panel units they purchased. A kWh credit would appear each month on their bill for a period of 20 years. It isestimated that each panel will produce approximately 500 kWh’s per year. Members can transfer their contract to any Redwood Electric member if they move before the 20 years is up.
Participation Option B: Purchase per kWh
Members pay $.14/kWh each month for their portion of the array’s production. There is no down payment or contract. The price does not change. Members would be locking in a portion of their electric purchases at a price of $.14/kWh until the program ends on December 31, 2037. Members can leave the program at any time but cannot transfer the rate to other members.
Load Management Programs
One of the things we try to do at Redwood Electric Cooperative is answer your questions and provide you with information so you can make decisions regarding your energy usage. Conservation is no longer the ugly word it was from the 70’s when it meant doing without. In the 21st century, conservation means making efficient use of what we have.
Redwood Electric works closely with Great River Energy and the Department of Commerce to provide you with information and programs that allow you to use energy wisely. We encourage you to call and speak with the our electrician if you have questions about the load management programs.
If you are building a new house or remodeling an existing one, please call our office. It makes good sense to incorporate today’s electro-technologies during the construction phase of your new home.
Load Management and Electric Terms
Kilowatt (KW): The basic unit of electrical demand, equal to 1000 watts.
Kilowatt-hour: The basic measure of electrical energy equal to 1000 watt hours, or the amount of electric energy required to operate a 100 watt bulb for 10 hours.
Demand: The amount of electricity a customer uses at any given moment. Demand varies from hour to hour, day to day, and season to season. This usage is expressed in kilowatts and it called demand.
Peak Demand: The maximum amount of electricity used by a utility customer at any time during the year. The peak is used to measure the amount of electric transmission.
Off Peak Power: Power supplied during designated periods of relatively low system demands.
Peak Shaving: Reducing electrical consumption during peak demand times.
Load Management: A program where an electric utility seeks to control its customers use of electricity in order to reduce the system's total demand. Usually a special rate or incentive is provided to the member to participate in a program.
Cycled Air Conditioning: An energy efficiency program to help Redwood Electric members save energy and money all summer long. When the demand for electricity is high, participating central air conditioning units are cycled on and off every 15 minutes, to help reduce electric demand throughout the cooperative.
Dual Fuel: A heating system that combines two fuel sources; electricity as a primary and propane or other fuel as a secondary source. This is accomplished by either adding an electric heating unit to a gas furnace or adding propane adding propane or other source to an electric heating unit. Particpants in a dual fuel program have the electric source turned off at times of high electric usage on the utitlity system. Members in the program are offered incentives to participate.
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