FORT SMITH -- Alma is in the early stages of having solar energy panels put in to provide power to municipal facilities.

Mayor Jerry Martin said the Alma City Council approved giving him permission in December to sign an agreement with the Little Rock-based company Entegrity. The contract was signed at the end of the month.

Currently, Martin said, Entegrity engineers are working on the project so its first phase can begin, although a starting date for construction has not yet been set.

"We hope to have a date of when they will start construction by the end of next week," Martin said Friday.

Phase I of the project will involve building a solar panel array at Alma's wastewater treatment facility, which Martin said is located slightly outside town. About 5 to 6 acres of land will be dedicated to these panels. This will allow the city to shift the facility, along with some other offices in that area, to solar energy.

Phase II, according to Martin, will entail the placement of solar panels at another site that will power the rest of the municipal facilities, which include Alma city offices and its water treatment plant.

"And this agreement that we signed with Entegrity also allows us room to grow with other users," Martin said. "So we could end up being co-locators with other municipalities, with school districts, things of that nature, and if those come to fruition, then our savings will even be greater."

Martin said that if the project only involves Alma, the city is expected to save about $1.7 million over the course of 25 years. In addition, Alma will pay nothing upfront for the project, according to the city's contract with Entegrity.

"The good part about this is that, right now, even if they have to go purchasing property, that's going to be on Entegrity, not us, so we actually have no liability in this other than a commitment to buy power from Entegrity once everything's built," Martin said.

Alma currently gets its power from both Arkansas Valley Electric Cooperative and Oklahoma Gas & Electric, Martin said.

Sam Selig, director of Entegrity's water division, said the company's contract with Alma, which spans 25 years, states that the city will purchase all of the electricity produced by the two solar facilities that will come from the project. The city will also have the option to purchase the facilities from Entegrity after a period of five years.

"The big change with the Solar Access Act (Arkansas Act 464 of 2019) is it allowed taxable entities to develop these things for municipalities, who are tax-exempt, and so we are able to get a 30% federal solar investment tax credit, and so it basically just makes the project 30% less expensive for us to build versus them building it on their own," Selig said.

"And so then once all the tax requirements have run off in five years, if they want to purchase the project, they can."

Selig estimated both phases of the approximately 1.25-megawatt project will cost about $2 million on Entegrity's end. The project was designed to offset about 80% to 85% of the city government's total electric consumption.

NW News on 01/06/2020