Board authorizes 30‑year rooftop solar PPA for 5th Street County Office Building

Albemarle County authorized the county executive to sign a 30‑year lease for rooftop space at the 5th Street County Office Building and enter a power purchase agreement with a private developer (SunTribe Solar) to install and operate rooftop photovoltaic panels. Jamie Powers, Climate Action Project Manager, said the PPA requires no upfront county funds, the developer would own and maintain the system for the 30‑year term, and the county would purchase the solar energy under contract rates expected to yield cumulative savings.

Powers said the system would supply about half to 58% of the building’s energy needs (staff’s recent roll‑up of 12 months of usage) and displace roughly 10,000 tons of CO2e over 30 years. Bill Struthers, chief of facilities and operations, said the lease includes options for the county to purchase the system at fair market value at years 7, 15 and at the end of the term, and for the developer to remove the system at no cost should the county choose to replace the roof. The Board held a public hearing (no public speakers) and adopted the resolution authorizing the lease and PPA.

Supervisors asked technical and practical questions such as hail vulnerability, disposal/recycling at decommissioning and whether utilities’ interconnection rules would affect the economics. Powers and Struthers said panels are designed to withstand normal hail events, the developer bears repair responsibility under the PPA, and the project is sized to avoid larger utility net‑metering or regulatory complications. Supervisor Mike Pruitt asked whether a county capital purchase would save more in the long run; Powers said buying the system outright could produce larger savings, but the county lacked the capital appropriation and the PPA was the fastest path to deploy renewable energy risk‑free to the county’s balance sheet.

The Board approved the resolution on a roll‑call vote; staff will move forward with final contract steps.