Like most cities, Cathedral City had been looking to stabilize its budget process and reduce costs for quite some time.

It’s always a good idea to capitalize on your best assets. With approximately 355 sunny days a year, Cathedral City, CA, decided to do just that when it recently invested in a new energy-efficiency improvement package. An important part of the package included installation of a solar canopy on the roof of the civic center garage.

When we think solar, we often think “too expensive to install.” Although the $2.7 million Energy Savings Performance Contract (ESPC) between Cathedral City and Honeywell could hardly be called insignificant in price, it included a $1 million renewable-energy rebate from the state of California, which helped offset the cost tremendously. And when the price was considered in comparison to projected energy costs if the city were to continue to draw only from the local utility, the initial investment made more sense than not.

What’s noteworthy about this energy-upgrade project is that not only does the use of solar help make the environment more clean, but the city also started getting a savings return from day one of operation. How’s this possible? For one, the city was able to attain a really good loan package with a good interest rate. In addition, Honeywell did a great job of reducing the cost of the energy upgrades through its subcontractors. “And it certainly hasn’t hurt us since the rates of electricity have gone up in the last few months,” says Paul Shillcock, the now-retired economic development director of Cathedral City.

Seeking a Solution
Like most cities, Cathedral City had been looking to stabilize its budgeting process and reduce costs for quite some time. “Energy is a pretty volatile market,” begins Doug Poffinbarger*, the project developer for Honeywell on the Cathedral City modernization project. “So the city was looking at ways to stabilize and reduce their energy costs.”

Honeywell’s role in this process was to come up with a solid energy plan for Cathedral City, whether that meant plans for more efficient use of energy and/or new forms of generation. “We looked at multiple ideas from an ROI [return on investment] perspective,” says Poffinbarger, “then compiled all the information and figured out what was the best package for the city. Solar was what ended up sticking.”

The rebate had a lot to do with it. “During the energy crisis of 2001, one of the things I was concerned about was that we are in Southern California Edison land, so we pay some of the highest utility rates in the country,” begins Paul Marchand, Cathedral City council member. “But what was interesting was that ultimately what made the project possible was the cooperation of Edison, in terms of them helping us attain the rebate. We were able to get $1.02 million through them to differentiate the cost of the project.” (When fewer people use the grid, the utility is able to provide better service to its customers. So it’s in the utility’s best interests—and the best interests of its customers—to help in this way.)

Once Honeywell presented its initial, conceptual proposal for energy conservation to the Cathedral City city council, the council then performed its own due diligence with a feasibility study of its own. The results were favorable, and the city and Honeywell moved forward.

A representative from Southern California Edison presents Paul Marchand, Cathedral City council member, with a rebate check. The city was eligible for the rebate as a result of the solar installation.

Contract Worth Applauding
An ESPC allowed the city more say in the design and development of the project. “Legislation in the state of California and most other states in the Union enables any public institution in the state to negotiate directly with a qualified energy-services company, which Honeywell is, for energy-efficient improvements,” explains
Poffinbarger.

Work performed under an ESPC—especially projects that include renewable energy—can often qualify for rebates. Such was the case with Cathedral City, and Honeywell helped the city secure a rebate from the State of California. The rebate was administered through Southern California Edison (SCE), the local utility.

Honeywell assisted with all the design elements and had a full-time project manager overseeing the project. For Cathedral City’s ESPC, the design/build process was collaborative, which meant the city had input, through a review process, regarding the design.

Upgrades in Action
One of the biggest and most significant energy upgrades made was the addition of the 269-kW solar photovoltaic canopy installed on the roof of the civic center parking garage. The canopy was built by using more than 1,600 photovoltaic solar panels. The technology itself is not new, but the canopy’s elements were all custom-designed for this project.

The solar canopy generates power while shielding vehicles from the sun, and its clever design is such that citizens cannot tell, unless they know otherwise, that the canopy is anything more than a piece of the parking structure that provides shade for the cars.

When determining the best location for the photovoltaics, Honeywell also considered, in addition to the civic center parking garage, two other buildings in the same complex: the IMAX building and the Pickford Theater. Since these two buildings were not city-owned, however, there would have been more legal ramifications in terms of the construction as opposed to building on the civic center garage. Also, the parking garage’s structure proved to be a good design for such an addition. “It’s a three-level parking structure,” says Poffinbarger. “The structure we installed fits on top of the parking garage, adding additional covered parking. The roof of the Civic Center has a lot of steep angles so it didn’t make sense to attach it there.”

With the new canopy, the city still uses the grid but does not draw as much energy from it. It buys a lot less of it, and what is generated from the solar canopy is sent to the grid through net metering. This means that throughout the day the meter spins backward and at night it spins forward, allowing the grid energy usage to be more efficient than before the upgrades.

As part of the contract, Honeywell made other energy-efficiency improvements in addition to the installation of the canopy. These included upgrading traffic signals from incandescent lights to light-emitting diodes (LEDs), which use less energy and have a longer life span. In several city-owned buildings—three fire stations, the civic center, and the public works building—the company retrofitted lighting and lighting controls, put in sensors that help turn off computer monitors at night or when no one’s using them, and added window tinting so as to maximize temperature efficiency.

The canopy does an excellent job of supporting the city’s drive toward using clean, renewable energy: It’s expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by at least 514 tons each year—the equivalent of removing 103 automobiles from the road. When completed, this phase is expected to cut the city’s annual electrical energy consumption by 26%. And there’s no financial risk to the city because Honeywell is guaranteeing the energy and financial results.

Savings ’R’ Us
Before a decision was made to go with the solar canopy energy-saving option, a definite price had not yet been determined. “We didn’t have a really good number to work with yet,” explains Shillcock, the retired economic development director. “At the beginning it was more a situation where Honeywell said that their preliminary analysis indicated we would save more than it costs at a certain period of time. At the end of the day, however, it surprised us that we were actually getting a return right from day one. We were saving more than our loan payments.”

The best expectation for the city was that under the ideal circumstances, the savings would cover the loan payment and that would be it. “That would mean in 13 years, when the loan was paid off, we’d be saving that cost every year. Then that saved money could go into other services for residents,” says Shillcock. When the city did its analysis, it did it with the conservative assumption that the existing energy rates would not go up—which they knew would probably not be the case. “So we knew that we would see savings above and beyond the loan payment before the 13-year period,” adds Shillcock. One of the reasons it was assumed the energy rates would probably go up is that, well, they never really seem to go down.

The building and energy-efficiency improvements resulting from the Honeywell/Cathedral City contract will help reduce the city’s annual energy operating costs by 33%. “Once we had the rebate committed, we structured it in such a way that the city did not have to make any expenditures,” says Marchand. “With Edison we could do 100% financing on this. We were looking at an initial payback of nine to 12 years.” If rates continue to increase, Marchand believes the city can pay off the project by the end of the decade. “And as electricity costs go up, our ROI gets closer and closer.”

A new solar canopy, part of a $2.7-million energy-conservation project, helps Cathedral City leverage the power of the sun.

And the savings will go well beyond the time the loan is paid off. As Marchand puts it, this is a project that will keep on giving for decades. “Not only will we have this thing paid off in less than 12 years, but the savings we realize on our energy bill will wind up being the payback. If the energy rates continue to go up, and if we’re at payoff by 2010 or 2012, those solar panels will continue to generate. It’s not just a win-win in the sense that we had to pay no out-of-pocket, but by using solar we are lessening our dependence on fossil fuels. And that’s crucial.”

The Future Looks “Oh, So Bright”
Obviously, some of the biggest benefits are more than just financial in nature, with “nature” being the key word here. “By using solar, we are taking a lot of crud out of the atmosphere,” begins Marchand. “We’re talking at least 514 tons of NOx alone. Southern California has nonattainment pollution areas. Anything we can do to reduce pollution gets us closer to being a nonattainment area, which reduces our dependence on fossil fuels.”

Mayor Kathy DeRosa is pleased that the city was able to take advantage of SCE’s Self-Generation Incentive funding to acquire the solar system. “This system accomplishes two goals. First, it demonstrates Cathedral City’s environmental stewardship and is a key step in the city’s direction to promote energy conservation and cost containment. Additional value is also realized for the citizens of Cathedral City who visit City Hall, as the system provides a shade covering for our guests who use the top floor of the building’s parking structure. Energy conservation is important to all Californians in maintaining system reliability and mitigating costs, as it will minimize the number of additional power plants that need to be built to meet the growth in energy usage and demand.”

Apart from the obvious environmental and financial benefits of the solar canopy, one of the reasons the city opted to go this route was to provide an energy conservation model within the region. “In the Coachella Valley there’s lots of sunlight,” says Poffinbarger. “It’s the best renewable resource. The city wanted to use the solar canopy as a way to promote clean electricity to other, neighboring cities. The city should really be commended for taking that step. No other public institutions in the Coachella Valley that we’re aware of have built something of this scale.”

Because Cathedral City decided to try something of this caliber, nearby businesses are considering solar more seriously. Two of Cathedral City’s auto dealers have now discussed solar, and Desert Hot Springs, a neighboring city, has also talked with Cathedral City about its experience with solar. “Right now solar is not a panacea,” says Marchand. “It’s not a complete substitute for grid-based electricity. But it can help moderate consumption. At some point down the line we need to discuss ways to develop a generation mechanism that uses renewable feedstock. We’re not there yet.”

Design That Fits
Honeywell was awarded the performance contract in November 2003, then started construction in May 2004. The project was completed in November 2005.

Honeywell determined the architectural look and feel of the design. “The easy design would have been to do a bunch of posts,” begins Poffinbarger. “But what we did was build with a stronger, bridgework kind of canopy up above, so we have much longer stands between posts and columns.” An important factor to be considered in the design was the need for the structure to withstand the high winds that blow through the desert. “It had to be able to withstand winds from different directions, which meant the whole structure would have to be stout.”

One of the biggest challenges of the construction process was the fact that the concrete garage surface Honeywell was building on was not consistently planar. This caused some of the measurements to be off, which resulted in some adjustments.

“When we installed the last piece of the latticework after we put the panels on for clearance,” says Poffinbarger, “there were about six parking spots that were too low. We had to lift up one end of the canopy and raise up the supporting columns. This raised the entire canopy up a few inches.” Fortunately, it took only a few days to correct the problem.

A Simply Stand-Up Performance
So enough with all those savings predictions—how is the canopy actually performing? So far, perfectly. As good as expected. Poffinbarger says this kind of technology is more reliable than any other form of generation.

Although in some systems the photovoltaic panels are designed to rotate so as to track the sun, this is not the case with Cathedral City’s system. “We went with the ‘fewer moving parts is better’ thinking here,” says Poffinbarger. “For custom-sized panels, as opposed to large industrial ones, you don’t see rotating parts as often because of the cost of maintaining the moving parts.”

To monitor the canopy’s operations, solar output is metered and the city can track the electricity generated—in 15 minute intervals—over a secure Web site that Honeywell included with the project. Maintenance is very simple as well. Unless there is a problem with the output, the city only needs to hose off the top of the panels so dust does not build up.

“The only moving parts are down in the inverter. This involves some electronics that convert the solar energy from direct to alternating current,” explains Poffinbarger. “The canopy produces DC electricity, then the inverter converts it from DC to AC. There are some fans in the inverter, but that’s probably the only piece that may need maintenance within the 25 years the equipment is warranted. With solid-state electronics, once you pass a burn-in period, which is usually a certain number of hours, you know there’s a good probability of it lasting throughout its whole life.”

Although the likelihood of the system failing is low, the city can fall back on traditional power supplies.

“The city is really always on grid power. So at the end of the month, before the bill comes out, the utility deducts the amount of energy the city got from the system based on what the meter says,” explains Poffinbarger. If for some reason it did stop working—which would only be in the case of an accident, such as someone squeezing an oversized truck onto the top floor and running into the canopy, for example—then the energy would automatically be supplied from the grid.

Honeywell and Cathedral City are currently exploring a second phase for this project, which will focus on using alternative sources of renewable energy. When asked about the specifics, Honeywell says it’s just too early to report on it.

Recyclable Potential
When asked if he feels this project will in any way help economic development in general in Cathedral City, Shillcock says he thinks it will indirectly. “We will realize savings above and beyond what the loan payments are. This money has to go into providing services to residents. For instance, anything we don’t have to spend on energy can be put to use repairing streets and bettering the police and fire services. And all those things go into the mix when you’re trying to sell the idea of a business coming here.”

Can this kind of canopy be used in non-desert cities just as effectively as somewhere like Cathedral City? Absolutely, says Poffinbarger: “The key to solar photovoltaics is the number of days you have direct sunlight.”

Even a city like Denver, one that has a lot of sun that is generally not very hot, is an outstanding application for solar. One of the advantages a city like Denver has is that electronics function better in cooler weather. “It’s not the temperature that matters as much as the solar radiance.”

“This is a renewable domestic source,” says Marchand. “So I look at this as doing our bit for America in terms of energy independence.”

*Doug Poffinbarger works for PE Consulting, Inc. (www.peconsulting.com ).

Amy Sorkin Kurland specializes in marketing communications.

DE - January/February 2007