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1Oct 6, 2026
Board of County CommissionersR34Regular businessNo outcome in the minutes
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30m
Chris Shaver
Yeah, so I'm gonna ask uh
Unidentified speakerVoice A
Christian Maloa. uh Nikki and Allen to come forward. This is uh this item scans for conversation I've had with technician start you regarding Solar power opportunities uh In the county. Um, I'm pleased to have done two separate presentations here. One in Corn Utilities Group, which is actually exploring solar opportunities at their reservoirs, which has a very unique payback structure to it. So we'll talk a little bit about that. And we've we've floated with um And
that's the solar J the accent.
kind of present a little bit of a picture of what that looks like and if board wants us to to take additional action on those, uh certainly we can we can have that discussion. But I'd like Joseph to Give us a an overview of what's going on in utilities as it relates to
Joseph Amua
solar power. Thank you, Mike. Good morning, and Commissioner Joseph Amway Utilities Director. I just want to give you a quick um overview of the floating solar systems. It's also known as floating uh voltaic um or F. T B for short. And like Mike said, we have two proposed installation sites that utilities have identified. That we want to explore. Now um LPB is a pretty much uh solar technology that places photovoltaic
um kind of on floating pan um Floating pontoons. Right. And it has a hurricane-rated Alberine and Ancorrent system to hold it in place. And usually you have a commercial inventor that converts direct current to alternative current. One of the key benefits of loading solar is that it will be able to allow us to generate. um renewable energy without requiring so much land. Um as you can see up there in the current, it's
got some pros and cons to it. One of the key um The benefits of um It helps us to upset electrical cost. Our operation, operating those wastewater treatment plants. uh and water treatment plants require a lot of electricity. Um it also helps us to cut um evaporation by 70%. on some of our large reservoirs like the Boyette Reservoir. It has the potential to cut evaporation,
thereby preserving more reclaimed water, holding reclaimed water within our system. And again, Because it's a large, usually two acre platform. um usually helps to you you need less land. Um um less land surface to be able to implement this technology. And also it helps stabilize water quality because it reduces IG growth because of it has the sunlight. So those are some of the benefits of
it. Some of the challenges usually you see with floating solars are high initial costs. Um because usually uh Those specialized floating pontoons require um are more expensive, about 10 to 40% increase in cost. Um and also it's a long-term feedback, you know, to recover. Um the initial capital investment. um and then also one of the limitations is that you have your ONM team operations team having to
go out there from time to time to go maintain the system so that becomes a con given that you'll be working on water surface. They'll they'll need special training to be able to um work and operate and maintain the systems. And then lastly, of course, um given that it's from water, um during the hurricane season we're gonna be as vulnerable is that's likelihood that um you may be impacted by a storm or hurricane event. So that's one one cause of it. Um Well
um the good news is that you know Uh we Uh our forward-thinking, innovative, and I would say solution-driven utilities team have been looking way ahead of the game. And they've been investigating the use of floating solars for more than a year now and have really identified two key strategic sites we believe we can be able to implement the system. One of it is the Boyette Reservoir and then the Land O' Lakes Reservoir. So Um Um his proposed
size are both adjacent to and treatment plants. So meaning that the power generated will be consumed immediately on site. you know, instead of being sent to a power grid and so on. Um the image you see there is just a concept picture of the Boyette reservoir and how the floating platforms or floating areas is going to look like. The preliminary investigation showed that um of how everything that we could generate. It will be about
500,000 kilowatts for the Land O' Lakes Reservoir and about 1.8 megawatts for the Volvet Reservoir.
Hello. Um the smaller project cost. Uh approximately a million dollars for the land links. Um and about 3.3 million for the Boyet reservoir. Um there is a federal with a federal eighty percent direct B investment tax credit, the net costs were reduced to about Seven hundred thousand for the um lands and about 2.3 million for um uh for the boy reservoir. Now the federal
pay they call it the red pay or elect elective pay is especially very valuable because it allows local governments like us to be able like Pasco County, to be able to receive direct cash refund or reimbursement. For this investment has credit on qualifying clean energy infrastructure projects. And one additional advantage to this system is that it'll allow the contractor we select. to be able to just deal as for the net cost. Which
means the several and then the two point three Medium and then they're gonna file directly file for the credit with the with the federal um through the program through the investment task for any program.
Now, when you look over this, so we we did an evaluation of the system over a 30-year lifecycle if you have this implemented. um over the land relates. As you can see, up there is the cash flow. For cash inflow and cash outflow. So if you look at a project cost a million dollars. For in terms of cash outflow, 30-year O and M maintenance costs over the 30-year will be 156,000. Um inventor replacement is gonna over the 30
years is gonna be 25,000. Now usually the inventors are usually replaced mid-year, around 15 years. Other than that, and the expended electric bill saving is um 2.5 million. And then from the direct A ITC, we are going to be getting 300,000. So really, if you look, there's a net potential. Um gain of one point seven million for Lanolakes. And similarly, if you do this, look at the similar calculations,
there's gonna be a net, you know. Cash position of seven point five seven point five million that will come. Two us the coming.
Now we've the team have already started doing some preliminary work. We're anticipating to be pursuing um funding or budgeting for this through the FY28 CIP cycle. We've already applied. If the team has been very proactive, I've already applied for Uh happy peace. The um alternative water supply grant. this year and um we are asking for 500,000 for the Dallas um
system and 1.35 million for the Bayet. Um we'll also be looking Um when they're Um the legislative appropriations as come around was we're looking at the opportunity to submit this for. Um, for funding. Oh. So in summary, from what you see Obviously, you can see that FPVs or solar systems really offers a very cost-effective, it's going to be a space efficient and environmental-friendly
beneficial opportunity to reduce energy costs for the utility and also become water infrastructure resilient. I definitely want to comment, I'll be remiss if I don't comment my team. team for the exceptional foresight in pursuing these innovative solutions. With the potential to lower O ⁇ M operational maintenance costs, post safeguarding rates, we want to make sure that we keep rates for our RAPS as low as possible. And again, I want to thank Commissioner
Starkey for identifying this opportunity. And again, Mike for and making the team look into it and I welcome any questions you have.
Kathryn Starkey
Well uh thank you for bringing this forward and uh I just think we should be looking for innovation wherever we can. I I love these numbers. And I just, you know, there's maybe other opportunities as well. One that is always I've always thought maybe an opportunity is is um the uh landfill that we have. Alpha Rich Red. behind um Yeah, at the Pearson's office back in here. Um that land's just sitting there. We put a solar field on top of that. Uh
correct. I love this and I and I you know you guys do too. We thought we'd be
Chris Shaver
looking for ways to save our taxpayers.
Which wouldn't be. So reading this
So over thirty years. Oak means
Unidentified speakerVoice A
we'll be to the good three hundred and four thousand almost three hundred and five thousand annual fee. Did I read that correctly? A clean. From K.
Seemingly we'll say fifty six thousand of change. A los three. And for boy at two hundred and forty eight thousand annually. Shares what we're looking our savings if I've if I've done that correctly. What's the mortal package of this and the risk cost? Should a wedding pink come through? With our annual potential savings of three hundred four thousand. Cover
the work that needs to be done. Should potential damages come through through a storm dam what have you and then the increase, you know, if we bring this internal. What is our staff cost? for the additional trainings or if you have to bring in new hires.
Joseph Amua
Where does that put our position? So that has not been considered. We did consider the when you cost can them
Chris Shaver
So
Joseph Amua
Yeah. I'll let Mana um This
Unidentified speakerVoice B
is quote answered that question. Commissioner O Cisco Bio Senior Park Manager. Um there's different packages we can get with the solar and that would be taken into consideration. The company that did the original concept did take that into consideration and has the panel selected for environmental constraints such as hurricanes and things like that. So they won't be technically needing something unless there's a big catastrophe. On the other hand, they did consider the replacement parts that wear items at the 15 year mark, and that's
portrayed under the Uh inver inverter replacement. So that should be part of the uh warranty package. and covered into the through through project cost.
So
Chris Shaver
we
Unidentified speakerVoice B
will have a warranty through half the life cycle. So the Panels. The panels themselves are usually industry average about 25 years. So there is a five-year period. However, they last way longer and there's decay that's also taken into consideration. Most of the time, what's not covered is the inverters and the panels do tend to last way longer than 30 years. So you say that there's
Unidentified speakerVoice A
Catastrophe. What's our what's our exposure? Should there be? Two hurricanes had
Unidentified speakerVoice B
come through in one season. Uh when I refer to catastrophe would be something that would probably affect the rest of our overall to the point where there won't be any panels left. Should that happen? We
Chris Shaver
would have to ensure
So the the product would be Sure. Okay.
So with the additional potential annual recovery $304,000.
A Ruby.
Where where would How would the savings be delivered
Unidentified speakerVoice B
to Always. Or taxpayers. So the savings would be essentially by not having to pay uh power mills. So that would be eventually reflected on lowering the rates of Powerbills we don't have to pay. Well we don't have
Unidentified speakerVoice A
Discretion to
Unidentified speakerVoice B
all accountants. Correct. We would essentially be flatlining the cost of what we pay for power. However, the power company can bring the cost of the company.
Unidentified speakerVoice A
If I want to have something writing from
Chris Shaver
which power utility on
But we need some concrete things.
Yeah.
Marty Moreland
And add to that. So is this offsetting this would be offsetting your retail expense? Because you're going to wire it so it works within. So there we're not net metering, we're not sending anything back out onto the grid because these facilities are operating. Around the clock basically. So you're not having to worry about Storage of power. distribution of power. So it's simply going to offset your retail, which is probably nine to ten cents a kilowatt hour right now as it stands versus
Unidentified speakerVoice A
selling back to the grid, which I understand that's at a standard standard contract rate of about three and a half cents, which which is what you see in other So the power is going to be generated used on site. So basically they're using less. So
Marty Moreland
those savings then would translate back and then presumably in her rate study. you would you would be looking at less power costs uh in order to translate that either to hold a line on rates or There's
Unidentified speakerVoice A
a reduction that's that's able to happen. That's why I'm
Unidentified speakerVoice B
So yeah and another factor is that they're strategically designed to be near a power plant or a wastewater plant or a water plant to consume the power. So it's not going like uh like I said to back to the bridge. You're getting accelerating
Unidentified speakerVoice A
conditioners as your largest consumer of power pretty much in in this entire world. That's why that makes a lot of sense. I'm I I was intrigued as well with the evaporative losses on the reclaim. Did you know we do? From tight during some times of year. Is there you have an estimate
Unidentified speakerVoice B
of that? So it's about a half an inch. month that we lose, but we're working on a technical memo to actually substantiate the cost of what that is. Yeah. What what's half what's half inch in reservoir going to the house?
Gotcha.
Kathryn Starkey
I'm
Unidentified speakerVoice B
just
Kathryn Starkey
curious.
Unidentified speakerVoice B
Yeah.
It's well significant almost like a billion gallons overall in both reservoirs. Yeah, it's significant savings of water.
Unidentified speakerVoice A
Thank you.
This is something I'll really treat with uh I didn't see this agenda item. So just now, so we're gonna also get them one yet. Please. The dialogue will prove it. Yeah, things that Anything you can do when you cut utility back, you get the full retail back, it's right outside as good. um haven't thought about water losses or we thought of putting one on this water, but I do think we need to look at pretty closely as far as the return that we're gonna get. But I want to make sure that we're gonna look at the the risk and minimize
that. Find out what it's gonna take to mature these things. So we do all the replacement stuff so we get a written contract for the twenty five or thirty years, whatever it may be, that we know exactly we're about. Uh I had had many companies in the past when solar was coming out do look at it and I said, Bring us proposal to our buildings. And I never had one come back in with closure where they could do arms. So it was just a conversation with Sperring. Again we want to listen to what you would learn. But I think this then up especially we can
do it internally, contract with a company, protect our risk. uh the return deal is very substantial and I think the best benefit is just we just we just had our rates go up for our utility customers. It gives us the the chance to stabilize the rates, we'll possibly go over down. So whatever it may be and This could just be the start of your two.
Kathryn Starkey
Um Two phase one, so that's not include any grants, federal or state grants we may get from. This one. And uh I don't recall the hearing. But then he's sold. Oh, I'm gonna easy. I'm working tonight. We don't really have many on the left side. I'm curious if I mean the A are the T Bell cards that are on um Was it there online that's a good idea?
Unidentified speakerVoice C
What a coincidence I'm here to. Uh and detail.
So
The two software sites in He has to go. uh one just down the street. We have 27 across our system throughout the Tampa Bay area. There was some damage throughout the two storms. Uh covered. by insurance covered throughout it and site by site. Right, or something and stuff that's sort of Right.
That was probably the peak of it. There were other sites during Pasco. There was not so much image. I will tell you. If one of those panels and I had no knowledge, no briefing of this item. Just start on the agenda. I'll talk to Katie a little bit on Friday. None of the sites you've talked about is in T Ghost Territory. So just so you know. My interest on this. This is more of that, just to be clear. Well no can get seen. It is the
wild play experience. Not the
The repairs done because probably not. It's not cheap, but it's not fun to get a repair.
Kathryn Starkey
So you may have to stop and make someone else
Unidentified speakerVoice C
and then this is late? No.
You do that on some side total. But I'm just I'm I'm giving you that knowledge that you're aware. Right. So again, it's not in our territory, either side you've talked about today. So Hello announced. Giving you that heads up so you're aware of one of those It gets damaged if it is not a fun experience outside. Yeah.
Unidentified speakerVoice A
May or may not be answered the question, but they can only work to be damaged. How long is that camp down? That's the latest time.
Are they made United States? Are they coming in from overseas? That's a that's a story of the manufacturing. You know, the pen is it's something that we could work on bringing. Year to Tampa Faye Axel County to manufacture.
Unidentified speakerVoice B
Of these items or maintenance of the items. I'm I'm sure when we go through the procurement process we would have advice. vendors that are local and try to look for well of course the print process I would go down
Chris Shaver
Pyramid rabbit hole. That's probably level of due diligence that I can know. Um
Unidentified speakerVoice B
Oh yeah. So to answer your question, most of the panels, if one of them does break, they're unable to in a sense, heal themselves and continue to work without that panel until that panel is replaced. That's part of the resiliency of this. Set up over water.
Joseph Amua
So Commissioner Oakley, we're going to be doing due diligence. Okay, so we are not the first to be implement implementing, we wouldn't be the first implementing solar, um, floating solar.
Um Orange County, they have it over the Southern Regional Water Supply Facility. Other Springs have it. um due energy habit. So there are we're going to be doing our due diligence, making sure that you are asking great questions. So go back and make sure we're answering and making sure we have answers for Damages, insurance coverage, and all that. So we do our due diligence and when visit those um uh municipalities that have done this, um Orlando, OUC,
Orange, Orlando Utilities Commissioner. So we'll do our due diligence and make sure that um you know this wouldn't come up extremely power utility or
Chris Shaver
third
Joseph Amua
party?
Third parties. The Duke Energy have, I don't know how Duke Energy DD is, but what we know is that Ottawa Springs have it over the reclamation facility. Um then other even Universal Orlando Resort Happy also and multiple other organizations. So we'll we'll go we'll visit and talk to them and make sure that um We're doing our due diligence to make sure that um everything is covered. We cover our bases before We will bring this for um
Unidentified speakerVoice A
for implementation. You need to meet the ultimate sprint manager a few years back to Island AI and how they were like the first city or the first county to actually get into it. Very very smart and so good here they're doing I think it'd be good to find out what the others have done. uh get their experiences, get their pitfollows, give us let us give us some guidance. I am less fearful in this in the storm event than I am a storm panel. It's not elevated, it's flat to the ground. So depending how loose these things can turn
up. Uh it's actually probably safer than having it somewhere else as a problem. I I just wanna make sure that again. Protected from risk. Uh
Kathryn Starkey
um I have a text from uh my staff that tells me that Um we just So it says here three million total for landly exploit, we have that in direct
Chris Shaver
components for us.
Needs to store for instance. Okay.
Yeah.
Kathryn Starkey
I don't know.
Unidentified speakerVoice A
quality. I mean it it's it's not really tied to that. I mean this is an awesome idea. I'm so glad you brought it up. I think there's a way. I think we just get more research to it, break some water. Let's get the experiences of the others we can actually look at that closer and dive into this a bit more to show we're gonna protect ourselves from risk from stall events, replacement maintenance, et cetera. Sure.
Thank you. back and more research? Yeah, so I didn't find But like uh Oh Uh Nikki Allen here, our interim uh facilities director, to uh kind of go over potential opportunities as well on the facility side. Um
Unidentified speakerVoice D
Good morning, Chairman, Commissioner, Nikki Allen, Interim Facilities Management Director. Following my utilities counterparts, this presentation will focus more on a solar shade canopy, so covered parking spaces, really highlighting how passive parking can be used as active infrastructure, focusing on the initial investment and then what the benefit would be for the county. I do want to highlight the numbers you're gonna see on this presentation were internal planning estimates. So take them loosely for
now. We will also do our due diligence. And if this concept should seem favorable, the next step would be to do a feasibility study and get some engineer plans and then come back with a solid presentation to move forward. So you can see here there's several opportunities and public facing benefits. The solar canopy parking would generate renewable power that would offset our electric bills. As Mr. Moa had announced as well, it would be an offset, not necessarily
gravity coming in. It would also enhance shaded parking, which also adds resiliency to our asphalt, and it increases the longevity of that as well. We would also be EV ready. So in the event that we were interested in adding EV chargers, the infrastructure is there. And it's just a simple addition to that. We like it. The proposal, if you can tell, if you can see it's it's strategically planned out. So we would start small. We're looking at 52 spaces, and the reason we would start with that is really to
measure the return on investment, make sure that the infrastructure is holding up well, and as Commissioner Weightman mentioned, um, what does that really look like, right, with maintenance and some of those insured parts of that. We are suggesting the East Lot. This is a preferred location for accessibility, but also in accordance with our long-term facility master plan.
Our capital expenditures, the cost you see here ranges, and again, these are early numbers. They used to illustrate just the general magnitude of what a project like this would be. If we focus solar only, so not including the E B chargers, we're looking at an initial start of 218 to 302,000. If we'd like to explore adding E B chargers from the start, we're looking At about 282,000, upwards of 458,000. Again, these are all
conceptual figures. The final cost would really be determined after we do the feasibility study and gather those engineer reports.
Our operating expenditures, this is where we really want to focus on are we training the staff to make sure that they're certified? Are we looking at a third-party maintenance plan? We're looking between on the short end, um, five 5,500, upwards of 9,100 per year. If we do have those EV chargers included, we would fall between 6,500 and 12,000 roughly. Keeping in mind that the inverters are typically replaced between that 12 and 15 year mark. And these are just
placeholders, just so you can see more or less what those inputs would look like. Okay, and then the offset and the payback. So based on our planning estimates, the Canopy could potentially offer a $28,000 to $49,000 annual electricity payback. While in use. Depending on the actual performance and instead of opportunities, we're looking at about a 10 to 17 year range payback. And then to move forward, our next steps would be to do our due diligence, complete the feasibility
study, also connect with the CUCI and see what initiatives they have, develop a detailed engineering report, and really identify viable funding sources.
Any questions?
Chris Shaver
Well
Kathryn Starkey
I
Chris Shaver
I
Kathryn Starkey
think it's something that we should explain.
Unidentified speakerVoice A
Okay. We would start in a due diligence process.
Doing the Randag one slide.
Chris Shaver
Oops,
Unidentified speakerVoice A
the
Chris Shaver
verb replacement calls.
Sure. So every twelve years it's harder to have them.
Unidentified speakerVoice A
You wanna do all so wean And that figure for maintenance and replacement pieces are we just factoring five percent increase a a year per Burger or about the other weed. Are we budgeting? you know, for trying to predict true maintenance in over a decade of
Unidentified speakerVoice D
Yes, I believe so. So I think
Unidentified speakerVoice A
awesome.
Unidentified speakerVoice D
Yeah. It would be doing uh during that exploratory phase, right? Connecting with the vendors, getting some solid numbers up through each vendor, and then during the procurement process, making sure that we do our due diligence to include that in the contract. Okay.
Chris Shaver
So this might be an odd question, but is there any way to put the panels on the roof
Unidentified speakerVoice D
and not How it's demonstrated. We can explore all options. I think it's this is just an early concept phase. Um, the covered parking again does have some resiliency to the parking lot and how we are maintaining that. Um, the continuous upkeep of it, there's a little bit of a benefit there as well, but we can explore all viable options.
Lisa YeagerSecond Vice Chair
The only reason I was thinking of just if a hurricane came in, absolutely like a tunnel of so that was the only reason why
Unidentified speakerVoice D
I was thinking of that. Yes. And as we meet with the different vendors, we can gather all that information for you.
Unidentified speakerVoice A
Um
Charlie Books
the
Unidentified speakerVoice A
thing one more information toward I'd like to speak. I know there's been a bunch of private companies over the years that added elsewhere. Let's go take a look at those private companies, see what they can do because to keep the restaurant, keep the maintenance down expensive. uh maybe worth looking at that as far as a comparison of what you do on the other work too. Um One of the ide ideas I had years ago was in Veterans Park. It's got a perfect facing roof. It's got a nice steep slope to it. They had just redone the roof recently, uh about a couple years ago now. But like that would have been an ideal one to
go forward and it could have cut down the expensive. I think if you look at it like with Pakuchi, the benefits for the lower rates is gonna be good, but as far as Tico Maybe a little bit better and maybe do keep regarding that as far as the safety's go for ROI. So maybe good to look at all the all the opportunities.
Chris Shaver
So absolutely. Okay, thank you.
Mm-hmm.
We
Charlie Books
and Brother?
Chris Shaver
Right,