By JIMMY LAWTON

OGDENSBURG – Ogdensburg may consider adding an additional .62 - .65 Megawatt solar farm, but the discussion is still in the earliest of phases.

Department of Public Works Supervisor Scott Thornill said the city may be able to secure an additional solar farm that could help the city save substantial money on municipal energy costs.

This would be in addition to the recently constructed New Energy Equity solar farm capable of producing 1.2 MW of solar power that has not yet been tied into the grid. It is also separate from the St. Lawrence-Lewis County BOCES consortium that could help the city provide 2.2 Megawatts of solar power.

Thornhill said the .65 MW farm would be would also be through NEE, but the agreement would call for a fixed cost of 10 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Under the existing agreement on the 1.2MW farm, Ogdensburg will pay 7.9 cents per kwh, but that will escalate by 2.5 percent every year.

Current electrical prices are about 11-12 kwh.

Thornhill says while a fixed rate would be less of an upfront savings, it would be substantially better over the project’s 25-year life span.

He estimated the escalating rate would reach the 10 kwh mark about nine year’s into the project and would continue to rise, while the fixed-rate would not change.

Thornhill says in hindsight the city should not have entertained the escalating rate, but added that the savings would still be substantial for the city since there is no monetary investment in the project.

According to early estimates the 1.2 MW farm will save the city roughly $2 million over the course of the 25 years.

Although no formal action was taken by city council Monday, it is expected a power purchase agreement with NEE for a second farm could come before the council in the July meeting.

Thornhill said if all three solar projects come to fruition, nearly 100 percent of Ogdensburg’s municipally used power would be supplied by the solar farms.