The Soldotna City Council adopted a resolution, which supports an ordinance on tonight’s Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly that would broaden economic development property tax exemption for independent power producers. The ordinance promotes the continued development of the Kenai Peninsula’s economy and helps to diversify power generation on the Kenai Peninsula.
Vice Mayor Lisa Parker told the Soldotna City Council:
“As you all know, the majority of our power right now is produced by Homer Electric, and they get 84% of that comes from natural gas, 16% from hydroelectric, and then those of us who have solar panels on our homes, what we don’t utilize, it’s put into the HEA system, and I would imagine that is probably pretty minuscule at this point. An Independent Power Producer has identified a location in Sterling for installation of a solar farm to generate power for resale to HEA. For this development to be economically viable, an amendment to the Kenai Peninsula Borough Code is necessary. The proposed change to the code would provide for a tax exemption, to the extent allowable under State Statute, for 15 years. This proposal and proposed ordinance change was also reviewed by the Borough’s Resilience and Security Advisory Commission, and they are supporting this tax exemption as well.”
Parker added that the installation of this solar Independent Power Producer would be the second in Alaska as they generate less than 5% of electricity generated in the state, compared to other IPPs generating about 40% of the electricity needs in the Lower 48. She says that the project will provide economic benefits bringing construction jobs and year-round maintenance jobs.
The KPB ordinance says that electricity generation can be made more resilient and more cost competitive by diversifying power generation sources, citing the current situation in Ukraine as the need to diversify electricity generation sources.