FORT RILEY, Kan. -- The first solar panel was installed in the Warner Peterson neighborhood at Fort Riley, Kansas, Feb. 8.
On a regional scale, approximately 1,260 residential homes at Fort Riley will receive solar panels by October, said Clay Boyer, operations director for Corvias Fort Riley. These efforts are part and parcel of the Department of Defense Privatized Solar Challenge Initiative for Corvias' Portfolio-based Solar Program.
"It is one the largest solar programs in the state of Kansas," he said. "The total project will be approximately 10.5 megawatts generated."
However, not every house at every neighborhood will have solar panels installed. Such houses include the homes on Historic Main Post, Boyer said. As for other homes, it'll depend on how much power the panels generate from the direction of the sun.
"It has to do with and based on the azimuth of the house," he said. "As far as the energy calculations, essentially (it is) whether or not the solar power generated makes sense for the program."
Typically, the ideal place for a solar panel would be in an area that has unobstructed line of sunlight for the longest portion of the day.
"Facing south is preferable (for panel placement) with no shading concerns," said Beth Worthley, Corvias strategic advisor out of Rhode Island.
For Corvias neighborhoods across the nation, Worthley said the housing partner hopes the program can produce about 70 megawatts of power across 10 different military installations throughout the country from both rooftops and ground solar panel models.
"We have completed work in Maryland at Fort Meade and Aberdeen Proving Ground," Worthley said. "And we are currently in-progress with construction in Fort Riley and Edwards Air Force Base in California."
Fort Riley is the fourth military installation contract owned by Corvias to have solar panels installed, she said.
HOW THIS PROGRAM WORKS
According to the Solar Panel frequently asked questions page on CorviasMilitaryLiving.com, there will be no change in individual home energy bills. However, the energy savings reaped will be put back into on-post military communities as a whole in terms of infrastructure and facilities.
"The effort will stabilize energy costs for the community as a whole, which will increase funds available for future improvements in housing," the FAQ said. "Residents will benefit as a community rather than as individuals via the reduced energy rate. The savings will allow for spending for sustainment and redevelopment on things such as new homes, playgrounds, roads, preventative maintenance, roofing and renovations."
The initiative itself will cost nothing to the Army, Worthley said. She added, all the work is contracted out to Sunstone Solar Solutions, who finances, owns and maintains the solar program at Fort Riley.
"This isn't a traditional solar lease or ownership of solar that you would have on a residential house," she said. "In exchange, (Fort) Riley housing will pay for the electricity that is generated at below the cost that we are paying from the utility company."
For that, the Army receives Renewable Energy Credits that can be leveraged toward federal mandated renewable energy development goals, Worthley said.
"One of the (RECs) goals that (former) President (Barrack) Obama has outlined as part of his clean power plan for military housing is to install 300 megawatts of renewable energy across federally subsidized housing by 2020," she said. "So our 70 megawatts (from Corvias housing across the nation) are going to help achieve that 300-megawatt goal."
The end-goal for the initiative is to ensure a more stable energy rate for the military, Worthley said.
"The military has goals for renewable energy and sustainability," Worthley said. "Energy security is a big thing and energy rate stabilization is big."
NEW JOBS FOR VETERANS
According to Corvias Portfolio-based Solar Program, veterans are actively being interviewed through the USO Fort Riley Pathfinder Program.
"The installation company is working with the Fort Riley USO through the Pathfinder program to actively pursue potential veterans for open positions they will have for installation technicians for the duration of the project here," Boyer said.
The portfolio also projects an estimated 37 percent of annual electricity consumption to be offset from power generated at Fort Riley. Also in the portfolio, these numbers were translated to 14,000 megawatts generated within the first year alone, which is equivalent to taking 2,736 cars off the road annually or planting 14,510 acres of forest.
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