By Janine Davis Record Staff Writer Residents driving by Truesdale City Hall may notice something new and shiny on the building’s roof. Workers recently finished installing two banks of solar panels last week. Truesdale officials say the project is expected to lower monthly utility bills for city hall and offer a renewable clean-energy alternative. The city will lease the tempered-glass panels for 20 years through Kansas City-based Brightergy, the largest solar developer in Missouri. Officials say they expect the program to be fully up and running in April. Monthly leasing charges will be $122, with the installation and maintenance costs covered by Brightergy. First-year savings on electricity are expected to be more than $400, and in subsequent years this amount will grow to reach a cumulative 20-year savings of more than $30,000. The program was approved through an ordinance passed by the board of aldermen in November 2013. City Clerk MaryLou Rainwater and Public Works Director Gilbert Nordwald got the idea for the program last fall at a conference held by the Missouri Rural Water Association (MRWA), which had installed solar panels through Brightergy. “Missouri Rural Water does a lot of great things, so we thought this would be a good thing to look into,” said Rainwater. “We imagined initially we might be too small to benefit, but the company told us we were a great candidate, so we had them come out.” Rainwater said the projected offset from the electrical grid is 61 percent. “This is a good thing for our city and taxpayers since it will save money and help out the environment,” said Rainwater. Rainwater noted that the city has had quite a bit of interest from residents calling to find out what was going on atop the roof last week. How Solar Works The solar panels are made up of photovoltaic (PV) cells that absorb sunlight and convert it to DC electricity. The DC electricity then travels to an inverter, where it is converted to AC electricity — the type of power generated from the utility power grid. From there, AC electricity from the inverter passes to the electric service panel or a breaker box, where it is routed to power the building’s various electrical loads. When the solar-panel system generates more power than the building consumes, excess electricity is routed to the power grid. When electricity feeds back to the grid, the utility meter spins backward, earning credits toward the electric bill from Ameren. Brightergy has installed more than 500 solar projects for cities, Fortune 500 companies, nonprofits and small businesses, including the highly publicized post-Katrina home and community rebuilding project in New Orleans Make It Right, founded by actor Brad Pitt.
Truesdale City Hall just completed installation of two arrays of solar panels on the building’s east and west sides. The project, which will save taxpayers more than $30,000 in electricity costs over the 20-year lease, was built by Missouri’s largest solar developer Brightergy, which covers the cost of installation and maintenance of the system. Janine Davis photo.
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