FM school board hears proposal for solar

FORT MADISON – The Fort Madison School Board may fix part of their roof and throw a bunch of solar panels on top.
The board heard a presentation from Michael Mohrfeld, president of Mohrfeld Solar out of Fort Madison, regarding solar power generation at the high school campus.
Mohrfeld has done multiple projects in the area including Keokuk, Wapello, and SCC, and for Lee County offices and Lee County Conservation.
Mohrfeld, who pitched the idea to Central Lee earlier this month, said tax credits that incentivize power purchase agreements between contractors and local governments are set to expire on June 30. To take advantage of savings that make the projects worthwhile, Mohrfeld said work would need to begin before the credits expire.
Board member Mio Santiago questioned Mohrfeld on the tax credits.
“Yeah, that’s the reason I’m here tonight. Those go away July 1,” Mohrfeld said. “Due to the Big Beautiful Bill, the residential credits ended Jan. 1 and the tax credits go away July 1 for commercial projects. We have to have the projects started before July 1.”
He said it takes about three months to get contracts through Alliant Energy so the district would have to move forward quickly if they so choose.
The school district didn’t have any action on the agenda so just took in the information. But the agreement would be to purchase power from a group called Red Lion Renewables out of Norwalk, Iowa, who Mohrfeld has a working relationship with.  Red Lion would fund the entire installation at no up-front costs to the district. The district would then purchase their electricity from Red Lion for 20 years and that’s how Red Lion would recoup their costs. Mohrfeld said the district could see up to $60,000 a year in savings and wouldn’t necessarily be subjected to price hikes from Alliant Energy. However there is a scheduled increase in rates as part of the 20-year agreement.
He also said the district would be able to purchase the system after six years, but the assumption would be the district would run the contract out 10 to 20 years.
“Theres a value in the system to buy it with an assumed life of 35 years on the panels and the inverters would have a 10-year life. They are the least expensive part of the equation,” he said.

The panels that would be installed are multifunctional and absorb energy directly and indirectly through reflection.
“If we use a reflective material product for the roofing, it does attribute to the solar tax credit,” Mohrfeld said.
The district, in a related item, approved going out for bids to replace a section of roof on the building's southwest side.
“Our panels are bifacial so that does qualify for ITC tax credits. So there are lot of things to discuss there as it relates to the roof component,” Mohrfeld said.
Bifacial panels absorb the sun's energy on both sides. The top side catches direct sunlight while the bottom side absorbs reflected light either off adjacent panels or the surface below the panels.
District Maintenance Director Nic Chiri said he hadn’t received any information from Red Lion CEO Terry Dvorak on the project, but Mohrfeld said this was a first touch of the project with the board and that information should be forthcoming.
“Tonight, its just discussion, and then Terry will follow up with a formal proposal,” Mohrfeld said, “But dollars and cents wise annualized savings in excess of $60,000 through the power purchase agreement.”
During the discussion on the roofing, Chiri said the district would want to get that section of roof completed before putting solar panels on top so they didn’t have to dismantle them later.
He said there were other sections of the roof on the older parts of the building that were on his radar, as well. An additional section on the south side is also part of the bidding process, but only as an alternative if costs are favorable. 
In other action, the board received information from Superintendent Mike Wolter that the Sandrock Trust has awarded the district a $75,000 annual gift that can be used as the district sees fit. Wolter said plans may include allowing departments to apply for funds out of the donation annually and funds could be allocated according to that.  He said there don't appear to be any restrictions on the funding.