![homer energy homer energy](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/gHu58Hsg6Lw/maxresdefault.jpg)
Henry Krull, who owns businesses on Whistle Hill in Soldotna, said high electricity costs, particularly at his hydroponic farm, have prevented him from expanding his business into other communities, and that he supports borough facilitation of the Renewable IPP farm. Multiple people testified in support of developing the solar farm. “Ultimately, what that does is it inhibits our ability to offer the lowest possible electricity costs to HEA members.” “It just amounts to a large tax burden on the project,” Miller said. Miller estimates that borough property taxes would take between 10 and 15 percent of Renewable IPP’s annual revenue, which would impact rates paid by utility customers. “But on top of that, the Regulatory Commission of Alaska has to review and approve that contract.”īefore the company breaks ground on the Kenai Peninsula, however, Renewable IPP has requested that the Kenai Peninsula Borough exempt IPPs from property taxes on their project’s capital assets. “What’s unique about it, especially here in Alaska, is (that) first, the utility has to say ‘Yeah, we think this price looks good for our members,’” Miller said. Renewable IPP then enters into a power purchase agreement, a contract that sets the price the company will sell power at.
![homer energy homer energy](https://www.homerenergy.com/img/HOMER-Grid-Monitor-Screen-Shot.png)
To make solar farms possible, Miller said Renewable IPP relies on a private investor to fund infrastructure and take on the capital risk. Miller and her business partners all have backgrounds in the oil and gas industry, and she said that employment background allows for an easy transition to work at a solar farm. Miller said that part of the attractiveness of the Kenai Peninsula to Renewable IPP for the farm is the amount of land available and the type of workers who already live here. On the Kenai Peninsula, that existing utility is HEA, which would be responsible for distributing solar power generated at the farm to HEA customers. When Renewable IPP opens a new farm, Miller said, they plug into an existing electric grid and then the utility distributes electricity to its customers. IPPs aren’t exclusively solar and bring competitive pricing to public utilities. IPP stands for independent power producer, which Miller defined as a private entity that owns a generation facility and sells electricity at wholesale prices to a public utility. When everybody wins, that’s a good business model.” “We wanted to help introduce new energy forms that could help suppress energy prices for Alaskans,” Miller said. Miller said she worked in the oil and gas industry for about 14 years before starting Renewable IPP, where she said her goal was to make renewable energy affordable for people in Alaska. The exact location of the Kenai Peninsula solar farm has not been finalized. The farm would generate enough energy to power about 4,500 homes.
Homer energy install#
The farm would have a rated output of 20 megawatts, but Renewable IPP would install 30 megawatts of solar panels to boost production on cloudy days. Renewable IPP’s Kenai Peninsula would be the company’s biggest, with roughly 60,000 solar panels distributed throughout about 160 acres of land. The company is behind Alaska’s largest solar farm, in Willow, as well as the development of another farm in Houston. Renewable IPP CEO Jenn Miller outlined details of the farm in a presentation given to the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly during its meeting last Tuesday, where multiple people testified in support of the farm. They’re both projects taken up by Renewable IPP, a company that develops, constructs and operates utility-scale solar farms. It would be the largest in the state of Alaska and roughly 20 times the size of the largest solar farm currently in the state. A 60,000-panel solar power farm capable of powering 4,500 homes may be coming to the Kenai Peninsula.