Carlsbad has decided to proceed with a feasibility study of whether it should build a solar power farm on 30 to 40 acres in a rarely visited corner of the city.
The site is at the city’s Maerkle Reservoir, near the border of Oceanside and Vista, where Carlsbad owns about 100 acres including the 17-acre reservoir topped by a floating fabric cover.
One of the hurdles is the location, said Amanda Flesse, general manager for the Carlsbad Municipal Water District. The only easy access is from a paved road through Vista, although it also can be reached from El Camino Real in Carlsbad over the narrow, unpaved Sunny Creek Road.
Also, recent fires at lithium-ion battery storage facilities in Escondido and elsewhere have raised concerns about possible fires, Flesse said.
“Battery energy storage systems are now a necessary component of solar energy generating systems,” states a city staff report. “These storage systems take solar power generated during the day and discharge the electricity later, especially from 4 to 9 p.m., when the energy grid is under the most stress.”
Solar system technology is changing rapidly and the fires were in older facilities, Flesse said. Newer batteries could be safer.
“We would be looking to hire a team of experts who would be knowledgeable about this rapidly advancing technology,” she said.
City staffers completed a preliminary analysis of the idea in April. The Carlsbad City Council voted 4-1 Tuesday, with Councilmember Melanie Burkholder opposed, to contract with a consultant to do a more extensive feasibility study.
Burkholder said she was concerned about the possibility of fires, and that the department’s resources could be better spent on other things than developing the solar farm idea.
Several Carlsbad residents wrote letters or spoke at the meeting in favor of the plan, saying it would increase the use of renewable energy, lower water rates and make the local power supply system more reliable.
Hiring the consultants will take about six months, and then it will take a year to 18 months to complete the study, Flesse said.
The water district, for which the City Council serves as the board of directors, has allocated $481,000 to the project so far, of which $460,000 remains available. Construction costs have not been determined.
The Maerkle Reservoir was created in the 1950s by the construction of the Squires Dam. In 1989, it was renamed for Fred Maerkle in recognition of his 30 years on the city’s water board. Maerkle died in January 2000.
Water for the reservoir is piped in from the San Diego County Water Authority’s aqueduct. At its maximum, the reservoir is 60 feet deep and contains about 200 million gallons of water, enough to supply all of Carlsbad for up to 20 days.
Carlsbad has been expanding its solar resources for nearly a decade.
The city installed 720 solar panels as shade structures in the parking lot and around the swimming pools at its Alga Norte Community Park in 2016.
The system cost about $1 million to install, and the city received a state rebate of more than $250,000 for the project. City officials estimated the Alga Norte project would save taxpayers about $66,000 annually in energy costs.
The city also recently installed 216 solar panels at its Police and Fire Headquarters, where they generate the equivalent of the electricity used by 90 average households annually.
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