Baileys Harbor Drops Solar Power From Plans for Wastewater Plant

With an April 19 town meeting and citizens’ decision on broadband availability looming, the Baileys Harbor Town Board voted to scale back an energy-saving project by eliminating the solar power proposed.

Thomas Huberty from Trane’s Comprehensive Solutions Division had completed a detailed energy audit and energy-savings proposals, and town officials liked most of his plan.

“My feeling is we should do everything [in Huberty’s plan] until we get to the wastewater treatment plant,” town president Don Sitte said this month. “I don’t believe we should proceed with putting in the solar panels.”

Ultimately, the board decided against spending more than $500,000 on solar energy. The board did agree on spending $690,000 for lighting upgrades at the town hall and marina, plus weatherization measures and the installation of controls and more efficient heating, ventilation and air conditioning for the town hall, marina and wastewater-treatment plant.

Board member Barb Anschutz also wanted to add auto-charging stations for electric vehicles – another move the board decided against. Resident Kurt Kiefer said he believed the town could avoid paying for those altogether. 

“There is infrastructure money coming for that,” said Kiefer, who is on the town’s Ad Hoc Broadband Committee, which is working on bringing fiber to all addresses within the town.

Treatment-plant operator Don Prust said the town had already taken many steps for saving energy at his facility – Huberty acknowledged that his audit found only a few lightbulbs in the plant that could be changed with more efficient ones – and at this time, solar energy didn’t provide a rapid enough return on investment. 

Prust said he believed it might take 20 years for the energy savings to pay for a solar array at the treatment plant, and the lifespan of the solar panels might not be that long. Huberty said the lifespan is more like 30 years, but he acknowledged that the town would not break even on the investment much more quickly than 20 years.

Prust suggested that when the plant needs an overhaul during the next five to eight years, perhaps solar equipment will have advanced to a point where it’s more practical. 

Board member Roberta Thelen said that beyond practicality, the town should install solar power and car-charging stations because they’re the right things to do. She said that during these critical times, the planet would benefit from 50% cuts in energy consumption by the year 2030.

“We need to look where to do a project like this,” she said.

Board member Peter Jacobs called the proposed solar array’s cost per kilowatt hour extremely high, and Dr. Tim Tischler, a town resident and Plan Commission chair, said there’s “just a lot on the plate for the town,” and that the broadband project is more important right now than installing solar panels.

Nelson Waterfront Update

No tax revenue is being used to pay Edgewater Resources to develop a master plan for the waterfront property the town acquired in 2021, according to Sue Tischler. She’s a member of the town board and the town’s Nelson Property Ad Hoc Committee, which is planning for improvements to the former hardware store, motel buildings, marina and former Larson property nearby.

The ad hoc committee’s chair, David Eliot, informed town officials that money raised through donations could cover Edgewater’s master-planning price, which is $41,680. The board voted to authorize town chair Don Sitte to request those funds to be donated to the town’s Open Space Preservation Fund to pay for the Edgewater master plan.