Renewable Energy Instillations in Lake County

Lake Health District Hospital and Lake County School District #7:

In January 2009 Anderson Engineering and regional experts in geothermal systems, completed a, grant funded feasibility study to determine the ability of this project to meet the heating needs for all the buildings of the school district and hospital. The study was done with the Town of Lakeview acting as the utility and the LCSD#7 and Lake District Hospital acting as the consumers. Due to the in-dept feasibility study, LCSD#7 was able to procure $1 million in grant funding to complete a geothermal retrofit of the buildings which converted the existing diesel fired boiler system to be able to accept geothermally heated water. The total cost of the geothermal source project was $3.8 million. No upfront cash was used for this project. Funding for this project is through a $800,000 state Business Energy Tax Credit Program (BETC) and a $3 million U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development Community Facility Loan to be paid back over a 40 year period at 3.5% interest rate. The town owns and operates the system and repays the loan using money generated from selling the heat to the school and hospital districts.

Quick Facts:

• The system went online December of 2013
• The geothermal system is designed to extract up to 5 million BTU’s of heat per hour to meet the heating demands of both the hospital and school district
• Annual carbon reduction from not burning diesel fuel = 800 tons/year
• Annual budgeted heating savings for LCSD#7 = up to $100,000/year
• The district has not burned a single drop of diesel to heat all of the in-town school facilities since Devember 17, 2013
• Buildings utilizing this: Lakeview High School, Daly Middle School , Arthur D. Hay School, Fremont School, and Lake Health District Hospital

Below is a Heating Comparison Cost Chart. Yearly savings on energy vary with the cost of other sources of energy:

Warner Creek Correctional Facility Geothermal System

• Total project cost was $1.2 million including a $200,000 maintenance fund over the expected 50 year life of the system.
• The system saves $19,000 per month, or $228,000 annually since switching from propane to geothermal heating.
• The payback period on the project after completion in 2005 was only 4 years
• The prison uses approximately 50% of the capacity of the system. This portion of the system delivers enough water for 400 inmate’s showering, laundry needs, and kitchen needs for hot water. It also heats the 117,000 square foot facility

Solar Instillations:

Black Cap

Quick Facts:

• The 2MW installation went online in November of 2012
• Developed by Obsidian Renewables, LLC for PacificCorp (which operates as Pacific Power in Oregon) in 2012
• Located 2 miles west of downtown Lakeview on a 20-acre site
• Uses single-axis tracking to tilt automatically to follow the sun and maximize efficiency
  Generates approximately 4.6 million kilowatt hours of energy annually – or approximately enough energy to power 400 homes each year
• During construction, over 90% of the labor was from local sources

Outback

Quick Facts:

• The 5.7MW array went online in January of 2013
• Developed by Obsidian Renewables, LLC and Smart Energy Capital
• Received $15 million in incentives from the state’s Business Energy Tax Credit Program and the Energy Trust of Oregon for construction
• Constellation Energy financed and owns the array, having acquired it in October of 2013
• Portland General Electric purchased the power by the plant via a 25-year power purchase agreement
• Uses single-axis tracking to tilt automatically to follow the sun and maximize efficiency
  Generates approximately 10 million kilowatt hours of energy annually, the equivalent to the energy use of 1,000 homes each year
• Around 80% of the 40-50 short term jobs went to local Oregonians
• Located 9 miles east of the town of Christmas Valley, Oregon on 50 acres of land

Lakeview 363

Quick Facts:

• The 363kW array went online in the fall of 2012
• Developed by Obsidian Renewables, LLC through Pacific Power’s Oregon Solar Incentive Program in 2013
• Uses single-axis tracking to tilt automatically to follow the sun and maximize efficiency

Lakeview 500

Quick Facts:

• The 500kW array construction was completed in December of 2013
• Developed by Obsidian Renewables, LLC through Pacific Power’s Oregon Solar Incentive Program in 2013
• Uses single-axis tracking to tilt automatically to follow the sun and maximize efficiency
• The system generates almost 1 million kilowatt hours annually

Lakeview 4H and FFA Farm

Quick Facts:

• The 10KW array went online in the Fall of 2013
• Funding for this project came from the Pacific Power’s Blue Sky renewable energy program
  This project is a partnership between Obsidian Renewables, LLC; Lake County 4H; Lake County School District #7; and LCRI
• Obsidian has donated the land adjacent to Lakeview Solar project for the new facility housing animals for the 4H program
• The 10kW array meets the electrical needs of the facility, keeping costs of operating the facility low
• Unlike the surrounding solar arrays, this instillation is a fixed axis system
• The system generates approximately 13,000 kilowatt hours annually

Data from the three smaller arrays described above is monitored and fed to viewing screens at the High School so that students can study and compare the differing outputs between the three systems.

Live monitoring for the Lakeview 4H and FFA Farm can be seen by clicking here