Michael Cornell, CA
Board Member from River Hill and sometimes guest blogger, has a nice piece over
at HoCoRising about the recently installed solar panels adjacent to the River Hill Pool and
Neighborhood Center. It’s a nice
post. I encourage everyone to read
it.
But it made me
think. I applaud CA’s foray into
harnessing the power of the sun; however, I think it’s time for CA to go big on
this project. I believe that CA
should push to cover every swimming pool pump house and shade structure
(gazebo, pergola, trellis; whatever you want to call them) with solar
panels. In addition, the vast,
southern wall of the Columbia Swim Center should get the photovoltaic treatment
too.
I single out CA’s
23 pools for a specific reason: they are open about three months a year. The remaining nine months, the power
generated at each of these locations would exceed the power used, thereby
generating utility credits.
Understanding CA’s
status as a non-profit, they would have to spend these credits. Another model would be to allow CA to
take out a bond, utilizing the power generated from the panels from Labor Day
to Memorial Day as payment on the bond, a solar bond. Given a 20-30 lifespan of the panels, this could represent
some significant funds available for reinvesting in the pools and other
infrastructure. It could also
offset/minimize the cost of operation during the summer months.
Now, I am sure that
this is not a completely new idea.
I believe CA has taken a look at their rooftops and assessed their solar
potential. If CA could efficiently
generate power from the Talbott Springs Pool rooftop, Alex Hekimian would be
writing blog posts too. Very few
sites are ideal, and there are some barriers to work through to get these sites
upgraded.
There may also be
some legal/regulatory hoops to jump through. Legislation may have to be written to allow non-profits to
enter into bond agreements of this structure. The legalese surrounding the triple-verification (CA, the
bond holder, and the power company) of the power meter at each pool would be a
significant undertaking itself.
But taken as a whole, this may be the type of 21st century economic
dynamic worth doing. hocoblogs@@@
4 comments:
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I'd love to see CA go big on this. Maryland uses relatively dirty electricity, making plug-in vehicles and equipment less enviro-friendly than it should be. My best friend has a Chevy Volt, and even in the Swan Point HOA's backward board members weren't blocking him from using the plug-in capability at all, it'd just be using more coal-source power in place of gas. If CA could offset or even outpace its electricity usage with solar, I'd be quite pleased. What would happen with the credits? Considering that the mentioned sites are CA membership facilities, I would hope any financial offsets would apply to CA membership operations, not general CA functions like CPRA.
It is nice to know that more entities and localities are opting to maximise solar power. Thanks for sharing this information.
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