Group Looks To Get MPD Rooftop Solar Before City Council for 2027 Budgeting

MOSCOW – A community solar project atop the Moscow Police Department (MPD) building will be the focus of the reactivated Climate Action Working Group (CAWG), the Moscow Sustainable Environment Commission determined at its regular meeting Tuesday.

Kelli Cooper, city sustainability programs coordinator and staff liaison to the commission, recommended the CAWG look to already-paid-for and state-compliant consultant models from the City of Boise and Idaho Sierra Club as the group prepares specific actions and requests to present to the Moscow City Council. Among other initiatives, Boise uses rooftop solar panels to offset building electricity usage at a fire station and library.

However, a 2024 study by Kimley-Horn & Associates of community solar atop Boise parking garages deemed the installations inefficiently costly without external funding. Former state Sen. David Nelson, of Moscow, has expressed interest in donating funds for Moscow community solar, if the extra power not used by the city is dedicated to low-income residential use. 

The Boise consultant mostly attributed the expense of the parking garage project to Idaho Power Company’s fluctuating compensation rates for the excess electricity that rooftop solar owners send back to the power grid. Indeed, Idaho Power sought a 60 percent cut in those rates last fall; on appeal, the Idaho Public Utilities Commission reduced that to a 31 percent cut. 

Moscow’s electricity mostly is provided by Avista Utilities, and it has been working with the city on community solar plans and may provide some grant funding, Cooper said.

The Idaho Sierra Club is advocating for Boise budget consideration this summer of community solar on the city’s Vista affordable-housing apartment complex.

Moscow’s CAWG would need to work quickly to get the MPD community solar project before City Council for its summer budget planning, City Councilman Evan Holmes told the Sustainable Environment Commission Tuesday.

The commission earlier this year drafted a letter to City Council in favor of a community solar project atop the new City Shops building. But city staff determined the letter required more research and requests for specific action, Cooper said. 

Since the shops aren’t built yet, and the MPD building was designed for rooftop solar with pre-wiring, plumbing and other infrastructure in place, she recommended the commission focus on the MPD location. The City Shops project could come later, she said. 

The commission decided to resurrect the CAWG rather than establish a new subcommittee to work on community solar. Previously, the CAWG typically met during the week before the monthly Environmental Sustainability Commission meeting, Cooper said. Commissioner Sophie Gilbert, not present at Tuesday’s meeting, has volunteered to chair the group.

In response to a question from Commissioner Gordon Wilson, Cooper said the project would not affect Moscow homeowner taxes. However, power generated that the city doesn’t use would not be returned to ratepayers in general, but would be donated to low-income residents. 

In other business, the commission:

* Welcomed new Commissioner Trish Hartzell, who described herself as an “environmental extremist.”

* Heard from Mac Cantrell, Palouse chapter of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby, that 350-400 people attended the Energy Efficiency and Electrification Fair in April.

* Heard that Cooper earlier that day helped judge north Idaho Youth Water Summit projects in Coeur d’Alene. 

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Sustainable Environment Commission will be June 16.