Community solar project launches

La Conner is about to embark on a green power project designed to cut the town’s energy costs and make money for investors.

The Maple Hall Community Solar LLC plans to install an array of solar panels on the roof of Maple Hall this spring.

Potential investors can hear about it at 7 p.m. on Thursday at Maple Hall.

Kevin Maas is the principal of Glacier Energy, which has completed similar investor-owned projects on the roofs of Anacortes Middle School and Anacortes Public Library.

Green energy is nothing new for La Conner. For years there has been a photovoltaic power installation at the wastewater treatment plant helping to lower the energy costs of that facility.

And Maas, a Skagit Valley local, is an alternative energy pioneer. He and his brother Daryl founded Farm Power Northwest, which has built five facilities in Washington and Oregon that generate electricity from cow manure. Their first Farm Power anaerobic manure digester went into service near Rexville about five years ago.

Maas’s solar company, Glacier Energy, specializes in putting solar arrays on public buildings at no cost to taxpayers or local governments.

Glacier lines up the investors to fund the cost of the solar projects.

The Maple Hall array will be funded by 15 “memberships” to the LLC. Each membership costs $4,000. In addition, Glacier has obtained a $19,000 federal grant.

The investors get their money back and earn a return on their investments quickly because they receive federal tax credits for energy investments and sell the electricity generated back to the utility company at very attractive rates.

After about five and a half years, the project has paid for itself and paid the investors. At that point, the energy-producing solar project is turned over to the town at no cost.

The town is making upgrades to the Maple Hall roof in preparation for the solar array. Construction on the array is expected to begin in May.

Maple Hall would accommodate at least a 15-kilowatt array, which is about three times the size of an array to power a house.