►
Description
Minneapolis Health, Environment & Community Engagement Committee Meeting
A
Good
morning,
I'll
call
to
order
this
meeting
of
our
health
environment
a
community
engagement
committee
meeting.
This
is
our
regular
meeting,
although
it's
rescheduled
from
Monday,
because
there
was
a
holiday
last
Monday,
it's
only
two
items
on
our
agenda
today.
The
first
is
a
consent
item
and
the
second
is
a
discussion
item
about
community
solar
garden.
So
all
move
the
consent
item,
which
is
authorizing
an
execution
of
a
mutual
aid
agreement
between
1720
jurisdictions
for
a
response
to
public
health
and
environmental
health
emergencies.
A
Anybody
want
to
pull
that
out
for
discussion,
seeing
none
all
those
in
favor,
please
say
aye
opposed,
say
no
stanchions.
That
motion
carries
and
then
we
can
move
into
our
presentation
and
I
forgot
that
I
had
neglected
to
introduce
all
council
members,
but
now
that
council,
member
Oh
fry
isn't
here
but
he's
on
his
way
as
Brian
looks
like
he's
all
set
up,
but
I'm
joined
today
by
council
members,
bender
Andrew,
Johnson
and
Elizabeth
Clayton.
B
Chair
Gordon
council
committee
members,
I'm
Bryan
Milberg,
the
energy
manager
for
the
city
I'm
here
today
to
move
forward
to
proposals
that
we
receive
from
our
request
for
proposals
for
a
low
income
household
community,
solar
garden.
I'll
cover
several
things
here
today,
we're
just
going
to
quickly
again
for
people
who
may
not
remember
how
the
garden
works.
The
things
that
we
were
asking
for
in
the
proposal,
the
pricing
of
the
two
accepted
proposals
and
then
the
long-term
financial
benefits
of
those
proposals.
B
So
again,
the
solar
garden
structure
is
a
solar
gardens
created.
It
sends
all
of
its
power
on
the
left
side
of
this
triangle
to
excel
for
free
Excel
sells
us
electricity
just
like
they
always
have
done,
and
they
charge
us
for
that
electricity
and
that's
the
same
thing
as
always.
However,
the
pricing
is
such
that
Excel
charges
us
for
all
the
electricity,
but
they
know
how
much
electricity
we
subscribe
to
at
the
garden
and
they
give
us
a
credit
for
that
electricity.
B
So
our
electricity
bill
to
excel
is
reduced
and
then,
at
the
same
time
we
have
to
provide
a
second
payment
to
the
garden
developer
themselves
and
for
most
Gardens,
the
price
to
the
garden
developer
is
less
than
the
credit,
and
so
you
have
a
net
positive
effect,
and
in
this
particular
example,
you
save
five
percent
on
the
electric
bill.
For
the
month
there
are
1000
of
these
Gardens
in
the
queue
at
Xcel.
Energy
about
300
have
been
built
so
they're
marching
along.
B
However,
almost
all
of
those
Gardens,
the
subscribers,
the
people
who
are
signed
up
for
that
credit,
are
either
large
industrial
customers,
commercial
customers
or
basically
people
with
high
credit
scores.
The
garden
developers
have
stated
over
and
over
that
to
get
financial
backing.
They
have
to
prove
to
their
backers
that
the
people
that
are
going
to
subscribe
to
the
garden
have
very
good
credit.
So
we
came
out
with
a
proposal
that
would
try
to
get
around
this,
and
so
the
city
asked
in
this
request
for
proposals.
B
We
were
looking
for
gardens
that
would
guarantee
at
least
20%
of
the
gardens
output
or
20%
of
the
subscriptions
would
go
to
low-income
households
that
live
in
the
city
of
Minneapolis.
The
low-income
household
is
defined
as
80%
of
the
median
income
for
the
county,
in
addition
to
the
requirement
that
they
have
the
low
income
people,
we
also
are
requiring
to
meet
all
of
our
standard
construction
guidelines,
such
as
women
and
minority
business
goals
in
the
overall
project
and
women
and
minority
labor
goals
in
the
actual
construction
of
the
array.
B
B
The
third
requirement
was
that
this
was
what
has
been
mostly
the
case
in
the
solar
garden
community,
which
is
a
pay-as-you-go
model.
There's
no
upfront
charge,
you
only
pay
for
the
electricity
that
the
garden
produces,
or
your
percentage
of
that
based
on
your
subscription
and
some
of
the
gardens
that
we've
seen
in
the
past.
Initially,
you
lose
a
little
money,
but
in
this
proposal
we
stated
that
the
low-income
people
had
to
save
money
from
day.
One.
B
To
try
and
sweeten
this
proposal,
because
we
knew
that
there
would
be
some
issues
with
incentives.
There
excuse
me
with
the
investors.
The
city
tried
to
offer
some
incentives.
One
of
those
is
that
the
city
has
already
agreed
to
take
20%
of
the
garden
as
an
anchor
tenant
as
a
high
credit
customer.
That's
a
positive
and
less
people
to
administer.
B
If
they
can't
find
one
at
the
end
of
that
three
months,
we
will
start
to
take
over
that
subscription
as
a
city
we're
not
going
to
pay
there
three
months
of
lost
power,
but
after
three
months,
if
they
can't
fulfill
a
low-income
household
subscriber,
then
the
city
will
take
on
that
subscription
by
law.
We
can
take
subscriptions
up
to
40%
of
the
gardens
output,
so
we
start
with
20
and
we
have
a
20%
reserve
where
we
can
pick
it
up
if
need
be,
and
then
also
one
of
the
issues.
B
B
Our
goal
was
to
try
and
get
developers
to
send
in
proposals
that
showed
getting
their
own
land
and
the
price
for
using
our
land.
We
assumed
that
our
land,
of
course,
would
say
the
money
and
the
price
would
be
cheaper.
Unfortunately,
no
one
did
that
we
got
seven
proposals,
which
was
very
nice.
Two
of
the
developers
proposed
Gardens
that
did
not
use
the
water
treatment
sites
at
all
and
they
were
not
interested
in
using
the
water
treatment
sites.
The
other
five
developers
proposed
only
using
the
water
treatment
sites,
so
we
never
got
a
head-to-head
comparison.
B
Unfortunately,
but
I
wanted
to
also
show
you
in
the
bottom.
Here
are
the
ranking
criteria
that
we
use,
and
the
reason
I
put
it
here
is
cost
of
service,
obviously
is
very
important,
but
I
just
want
to
show
that
was
only
25%
of
the
ranking
of
these
proposals.
We
wanted
to
make
sure
that
each
proposal
not
only
was
financially
sound
and
had
the
garden
experience,
but
also
we
took
a
lot
of
time
looking
into
their
outreach
program
to
get
these
low
income
households.
B
So
we
have
selected
two
developers.
We
have
selected
the
two
developers
that
did
not
use
the
water
treatment
site.
The
reason
we
chose
these
two
developers
is
number
one
they
had
the
highest
scores,
but
in
addition
to
that,
their
percentage
of
savings
to
the
low-income
households
was
the
highest
of
the
seven
proposals.
At
the
same
time,
the
city
does
not
lose
money
so
just
to
walk
through
these
two
companies,
Rina
solar
and
renewable
energy
partners-
Venus
Ola-
is
proposing
to
gardens.
There
was
no
limit
on
the
number
of
gardens.
They
could
propose
their
prices.
B
You
see
the
city
is
paying
slightly
higher
than
the
low
income
households.
This
was
a
fairly
typical
result
of
the
proposal.
Basically,
the
city
is
giving
up
a
little
bit
of
its
savings
to
help
the
low-income
subscribers,
this
particular
garden.
It's
a
fixed
rate
for
25
years,
no
increases
in
price
and
basically,
over
a
25
year
period,
the
city
will
save
about
a
25%
reduction
on
its
monthly
bill
and
the
low-income
households
will
receive
42%
reduction,
a
calculator
of
a
25-year
period
in
today's
dollars.
B
That's
$600
a
year
for
a
standard,
low-income
household,
so
it's
substantial.
The
other
chosen
developer
was
Renewable
Energy
Partners.
They
are
proposing
a
single
garden
sited
in
the
city
of
Minneapolis,
hopefully
on
North
High
School,
so
it'll
be
a
roof
mount
of
the
system.
Again,
you
see
the
difference
in
pricing.
The
city
is
paying
a
little
more,
this
particular
garden.
You
see,
the
price
is
lower
initially
and
somewhat
typically
for
a
low
price
on
the
initial
startup.
B
They
have
an
escalator
so
that
price
will
increase
from
one
and
a
quarter
percent
each
year,
which
is
not
an
issue
because
Xcel
Energy
raises
the
credit
each
year,
based
on
the
retail
rate
of
electricity,
and
that
increase
has
been
two
point:
six
five
percent
for
the
last
15
years,
so
the
credit
will
increase
faster
than
the
price
that
you're
paying
to
the
garden.
So
your
actual
savings
increase
over
time
now.
B
One
thing
you'll
notice
here
is
the
price
is
cheaper
here
than
the
first
one,
and
yet
they're
saving
less
and
the
reason
for
this
is
the
first
developer
was
able
to
get
their
application
for
the
Garden
Inn
before
December
31st
2016
on
January
1st
2017,
a
new
tariff
came
in
place
where
the
credit
is
not
as
great
as
the
old
tariff,
and
so
here
you
can
see
that
that
change
has
impacted
the
finances.
However,
they
will
still
save
25%
on
their
monthly
bill.
B
The
second
section
of
the
chart
here
just
again
the
same
two
companies,
the
location
of
the
gardens
Rena-
will
be
in
Anoka
and
Sherbourne
County
on
basically
open
land
and
the
Renewable
Energy
Partners,
hopefully,
will
be
on
North
High
School.
But
if
not,
they
had
several
other
industrial
sites
where
they
can
place
it
on
roofs.
B
A
typical
household
uses
about
10,000
kilowatt
hours
a
year,
and
so
this
next
column
shows
how
many
households
can
these
Gardens
support,
so
Rina
solar
can
do
71
households
and
obviously,
since
they're,
twice
as
large
as
renewable
energy
partners,
they
are
again
serving
almost
over
two
times.
Then
excuse
me
two
times
as
many
people
and
Renewable
Energy
Partners
is
at
31.
So
we
have
about
a
hundred
families
that
can
partake
in
this.
If
it's
they
select
doing
all
of
their
electricity
through
this
program,
which
they
do
not
have
to
do,
they
can
do
a
portion.
B
We
could
then
serve
more
households.
This
is
only
20%
of
the
garden
talking
to
the
developers.
They
are
willing
to
take
more
low-income
households
than
the
20%
guarantee
minimum,
so
we
may
be
able
to
serve
up
to
four
times
as
many
people
and
I
also
wanted
to
show
that
both
of
these
Gardens
in
their
outreach
program
have
enlisted
several
well-known
neighborhood
organizations,
nonprofits
working
in
the
area,
specifically
with
low
income,
households
that
I
have
mailing
lists
that
have
clientele
and
we
feel
they'll
be
able
to
reach
these
people
quite
well.
B
I
do
want
to
just
talk
a
little
bit
about
timing.
The
rena
solar
Gardens
possibly
could
come
online
by
the
end
of
2018.
It's
unlikely
that
the
Renewable
Energy
Partners.
Will
it
probably
be
the
first
quarter
of
2004
2019.
Excuse
me,
I
just
wanted
to
show
the
financial
gains
over
time.
This
is
in
constant
2017
dollars.
B
B
So
if
the
counts
committee
approves
will
move
forward
with
negotiating
contracts,
we
will
have
a
standard
subscription
agreement
as
always,
but
we
will
also
have
a
side
contract
that
discusses
all
the
details
of
them.
Finding
the
low-income
households
in
the
ways
that
we
would
replace
them
if
needed.
So
that
could
be
two
separate
contracts
with
each
developer.
A
B
A
Excellent,
absolutely
I
appreciate
that
any
other
questions
from
committee
members
I'm
delighted
that
we
got
so
many
responses
and
we
found
two
I
think
more
than
maybe
we
even
expected
our
words
not
moving
forward
with
so
I'm
delighted
to
move
approval
of
this
item
and
I
think
in
our
kind
of
our
in
our
discussions,
it's
just
the
last
community,
so
our
RFP
we
were
expecting
to
put
out
over
there.
We.
B
Do
have
one
more
based
on
the
final
result
that
the
Hiawatha
expansion
we've
been
talking.
We
have
submitted
to
a
grant
and
we
see
received
a
grant
for
technical
expertise
from
the
Department
of
Energy.
It's
called
the
solar
challenge
grant
and
that
is
in
that
particular
program
depending
upon
the
size
of
the
buildings,
the
parking
garage
we
can
possibly
do
something
there.
The
other
issue
is
that
Xcel
Energy
is
pursuing
renewable
development
funds
for
that
project
as
well
to
lower
the
cost
to
again
increase
the
savings.
B
A
B
Yes,
we
in
reviewing
the
proposals,
while
they
all
save
some
money.
It
was
decided
that
the
liability
of
having
an
outside
company's
infrastructure
sitting
on
top
of
our
infrastructure-
and
we
were
only
saving
about
fifteen
to
twenty
thousand
dollars
a
year
in
savings.
It
just
wasn't
worth
tying
up
the
land.
If
it
should
happen
that
we
would
have
to
open
up
a
reservoir
to
repair
it,
they
would
have
to
remove
the
solar
array,
and
that
means
the
customers
would
then
stop
getting
the
credit,
and
so
there
was
a
liability
there.
A
For
vibrating,
then
I
guess
I
already
did
move
that
we
authorized
the
execution
of
these
two
contracts,
one
with
community
solar
and
the
other
one
I
mean
both
for
community
solar,
Gardens,
one
with
renewable
energy
partners
and
the
other
one
for
arena
Sola.
All
those
in
favor
motion,
please
say
aye
aye,
any
opposed,
say.
No.
That
motion
carries
then
and
seeing
no
further
business
before
us
today.
We
are
adjourned.
Thank
you
very
much.