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Wednesday, July 15, 2015 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Solar farms proposed near Bend
By Ted Shorack
The Bulletin
BEND (AP) — The abun-
dance of sunshine east of the
Cascade mountains makes
Central Oregon a prime
location for generating solar
power.
Two adjoining solar facili-
ties have been proposed east
of Bend, and others could
soon follow. Installation costs
have dropped in recent years,
and requirements for Oregon
utilities to use renewable
energy increased this year.
But that doesn’t mean
solar panels will stretch
across every square inch of
the High Desert. The pur-
chase price for solar power
and the effect of competing
energy sources could con-
tinue to dissuade some devel-
opment companies.
A Deschutes County hear-
ings officer will review the
two proposed solar farms at
a public meeting Tuesday in
Bend.
The proposed solar facili-
ties would cover about 70
acres on land zoned for farm-
ing and produce a combined
20 megawatts of electricity a
year, enough to power 3,000
homes annually.
The solar projects are con-
sidered “qualified facilities,”
meaning they can sell their
power to utility companies at
a set rate if they meet certain
federal requirements.
Solar farms could be a
welcome relief for landown-
ers who are limited in what
SISTERS
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Broken Spring
Specialist
Dale Lester
they can do with their prop-
erty. Jodi and Harland Hafter
own the land being proposed
for solar panels north of
Neff Road and are planning
to lease the property for the
facility.
“The reason we decided
to do the solar is because our
property is not viable for agri-
culture,” said Jodi Hafter.
“It’s pretty much a per-
fect deal for us and them,”
she said. “Everybody wants
a cheaper form of energy, and
so we figured it would be a
good thing for the area.”
Cathy Jensen lives next
to the Hafters. She said some
neighbors believe the solar
projects will not have enough
of a buffer space from prop-
erty lines and Big Sky Park,
which is to the west of the
property and popular for its
off-leash dog park.
“We would like the county
to think very hard about
the criteria for these,” said
Jensen. “(Deschutes County)
needs to think about what the
implications are.”
Jensen added that the
“massive array of solar pan-
els” will give the area more
of an industrial feel instead of
rural farmland.
“It’s not that we’re against
solar, but we’d like to see it
be a more manageable size,”
she said.
Cypress
Creek
Renewables, a Santa Monica,
California-based company, is
developing the northern proj-
ect and is co-developing the
southern project with Oregon
Solar Land Holdings.
“These type of projects
are very limited in Central
Oregon,” said Jason Carr, a
spokesman for Cypress Creek
Renewables. “There are a lot
of requirements necessary
in order to have a site that is
viable.”
The company has filed a
conditional-use permit with
the county to develop the
solar project. Solar power
generation facilities are
allowed in the exclusive farm
use zone, according to county
development code.
Carr said the company has
no intention of selling power
outside of the area. A Pacific
Power substation is not far
from the proposed facili-
ties and can be connected.
A 10-megawatt facility in
Bend would be difficult to do
because of the cost and avail-
ability of land. If the facilities
are set up too far from the
city, it would cost millions of
dollars to connect to the sub-
station, Carr said.
“There are a lot of issues
that go into where and why
these can be sited,” said
Carr. “There’s very few sites
where all those pieces come
together.”
There are incentives for
companies to develop solar-
generating facilities. A solar
investment tax credit reduces
the amount of income tax
paid by solar developers by
30 percent. That will change
to 10 percent in December
2016. Facilities have to be
operational by then if they
want to receive the tax credit
at 30 percent.
“It’s being significantly
reduced, (but) some people
think it might get extended
and others think that might
not happen,” said Brittany
Andrus, a senior utility ana-
lyst with the Oregon Public
Utility Commission.
Residential and commer-
cial solar system installation
costs declined between 1998
and 2013, according to the
National Renewable Energy
Laboratory, a federal research
group studying energy tech-
nologies. Between 2012 and
2013 the costs dropped by 12
to 15 percent depending on
the system size, according to
the research group. Analysts
expect the cost of install-
ing systems to continue to
fall.
Paul Israel, president of
Oregon-based Sunlight Solar
Energy Inc., said his com-
pany has looked at devel-
oping a solar facility in
Central Oregon that could
sell its power to utility com-
panies. The amount paid by
the potential purchasers of
the power, however, is not
enough to pay back investors
and receive a profit, he said.
Israel said this part of
Oregon is the best in the state
for generating solar power
and it’s terrible not to utilize
it.
The Legislature passed
legislation in 2007 requiring
utilities to deliver a percent-
age of electricity from renew-
able resources. The required
percentage from renewable
energy jumped from 5 to 15
percent this year for Portland
General Electric, PacifiCorp
and Eugene Water and
Electric Board, the three larg-
est utilities in the state.
Israel said the require-
ment should be expanded to
promote more solar energy
in Oregon. The state require-
ment will increase to 25 per-
cent renewable energy in
2025.
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