The ink has dried on an agreement for the city of Dayton to offtake energy from a solar farm proposed for West Dayton. The project is expected to yield major savings for Dayton’s energy customers.

The project, Gem City Solar, is poised to become the largest solar farm in the city.

It’s a 300-acre, 49.9 megawatt solar farm that will be built south of Little Richmond Road and north of Hoover Avenue on a 600-acre site. Construction will kick off next year and it should be operating by 2028.

Plans for a solar project took shape about eight years ago. The landowner initially hoped to make the area an industrial park, said Dayton’s sustainability manager Meg Maloney.

“But obviously being a Rust Belt City, we haven’t had a lot of interest in developing manufacturing in that area. So the land owner worked with the solar developer at the time to look at placing solar there,”Maloney said.

“…This is a really best use scenario that again provides maximum community benefits to our residents.”

$42 million in savings

The agreement between the city of Dayton, AEP Energy and Sustainable Ohio Public Energy Council also establishes one of the largest community choice solar agreements within a U.S. city limit.

Gem City Solar will generate about 30% of the energy load for Dayton’s residential electric aggregation program for 25 years. The city plans to purchase the remaining 70% of energy from other renewable sources when it shops for supply twice a year.

Courtesy of TED Renewables

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Contributed

This method allows the city to avoid market volatility on energy supply prices, said Maloney.

“A lot of residents right now have been saying, ‘hey, my bills keep increasing, prices are all over the place.’ Well, now 30% of our energy is just locked in at a price for 25 years, so we can provide some stability,” Maloney said.

Based on market trends, the city estimates it will lead to $42 million in savings for program customers in that time.

Should conditions change, the city of Dayton will also have the option of selling renewable energy credits from Gem City Solar in the future. These will be publicly disclosed on the city of Dayton website, Maloney said.

“It is not only creating a state precedent but a national precedent in how communities can purchase energy and actually give it to their residents,” Maloney said.

The solar project aligns with the city’s 2021 climate emergency resolution, which includes a commitment to use 100% renewable energy in its electric aggregation program by 2040.

‘Refreshing’ support for solar project

The project was initially owned by TED Renewables for development and siting. It was sold to global energy company Zelestra Energy in October.

Zelestra will be making payments in lieu of taxes to Montgomery County throughout the project lifespan — an agreement it inherited through the purchase. It will pay $450,000 to the county annually.

Through the agreement, Zelestra has a commitment to local workforce training, and more details on that will be available in the coming months, said Philip North, CEO of Zelestra US, the U.S. business arm of Zelestra Energy.

They are also making efforts to conserve the ecology of the area, North said, such as planting pollinator-friendly flora and wetland protection.

He said they are excited and energized by the amount of support they’ve received from the city around the construction of this project.

“I think in some ways it’s unheard of how much support we’ve had, as there are a number of places with degrees of NIMBYism,” he said.

“So it’s been really refreshing to see how excited the city is to have this built in the community and we want to hold up our end of the bargain of that as we build it and make sure that we’re doing it in the right way with all the agreements that we’ve made and commitments and being a long term partner.”

This is Zelestra’s first solar project in Ohio and the first to supply energy to the PJM Interconnection grid network.