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Community Solar Garden Memorandum <br /> 2  <br />  <br />Staff estimate that the two proposed subscriptions could result in a total net present value of electricity <br />cost savings to the city of approximately $330,000 over the 25-year life of the subscription agreements. <br />Further details on potential savings appear in Appendix I. <br /> <br /> <br />Community Solar Garden Subscriber Collaborative Background: <br /> <br />In July 2015, the city of St. Anthony Village submitted a letter of intent to the Metropolitan Council to <br />participate in the “Community Solar Subscriber Collaborative.” This allowed the city to consider <br />opportunities to subscribe to community solar gardens that emerge from the Metropolitan Council’s <br />Request for Proposals for Community Solar Garden Subscription Agreements. The Metropolitan Council <br />negotiated subscription agreements with five solar garden developers, and a lottery was conducted to <br />allocate subscription capacity to participating local governments. The subscriber collaborative offered the <br />city administrative efficiencies as well as the benefits of joining other participants to form a larger <br />demand pool. Additional information about the “Community Solar Subscriber Collaborative” is available <br />in the fact sheet attached. <br />Community Solar Gardens operate under Minnesota Statute 216B.1641 and regulatory oversight provided <br />by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. Eligible gardens have no less than five subscribers, and no <br />subscriber may account for more than 40% of the garden’s capacity. Eligible subscribers must be retail <br />electric customers of the utility served by the garden, and located in the same or adjacent county as the <br />garden. Additional information and requirements are described in the attached “Frequently Asked <br />Questions” document provided by Xcel Energy. <br />Round 1 lottery results were announced on January 28, 2016 and local governments were asked to signal <br />their intent to consider subscription opportunities by February 29, 2016. Unclaimed lottery tickets were <br />re-allocated in a second lottery, and results were announced on April 5, 2016. The city of St. Anthony <br />participated in both lottery rounds and offered to consider subscription opportunities that do not exceed <br />1.5 million kilowatt-hours (“kWh”) of annual electricity production, equivalent to approximately 880 <br />kilowatts (“kW”) of solar garden capacity. The city of St. Anthony was offered subscription agreements <br />for a total of 920 kW of capacity distributed across the following community solar gardens: <br /> <br /> 120 kW in a community solar garden to be developed by SolarStone in Wright County <br /> 200 kW in a community solar garden to be developed by US Solar in Carver County <br /> 200 kW in a community solar garden to be developed by US Solar in Wright County <br /> 400 kW in two community solar gardens to be developed by TruNorth Solar in Carver County <br /> <br />City staff evaluated the potential cost savings from the proposals of all three developers and <br />communicated with all of the developers about potential subscriptions. The proposed subscription <br />agreements were formulated based on the largest potential savings to the city, given the city facilities <br />eligible for a subscription, and the responses from developers. <br />36