With energy costs mounting, E-470 officials were looking for ways to cut costs along the 47-mile toll road that wraps along Aurora’s eastern edge.
“We wanted to be green and sustainable,” said Walt Arnason, manager of operations for E-470. “But we didn’t want to do it at a cost. We wanted to decrease our costs.”
Last week, toll-road officials unveiled a new project that they say accomplishes both those goals.
The project consists of solar panels along a 17-mile stretch of the highway from the Gartrell Road exit to East 64th Avenue. At 22 different sites, solar arrays are powering nearby toll-collection equipment, lighting and other power needs. At each location, the panels provide more than 80 percent of the energy needs for the nearby equipment.
The biggest array is a 1,116-panel site just north of Interstate 70. Arnason said that location is providing about 90 percent of the power needed for the nearby toll plaza and a sprawling maintenance facility.
Officials estimate that over the next six years, the solar panels at that site alone will save about $70,000 on energy costs. Over the life of the project, which is supposed to last at least 20 years, toll authority officials expect to save about $1 million.
The panels are a good fit, Arnason said, because not only do they save E-470 money in the long run, but they also didn’t cost the toll authority anything other than some staff time getting the project in place.
“That’s why it made financial sense to do it,” he said.
Because the toll authority is technically an arm of state government, Arnason said they couldn’t qualify for the rebates from Xcel energy and the federal government.
That’s where Adamas Energy Investments came in. The New York-based firm provided the up-front costs for the project and receives the tax benefits from the deal as revenue brought in from selling electricity back to the grid. Richard Dovere, founder and managing partner at Adamas, said the deal is a good fit for both sides and he thinks similar deals could be solid fits for other toll roads.
“I think it’s an excellent use of space,” he said.
While many toll roads have space like E-470, Dovere said it’s a question of finding someone who thinks providing the up-front cash is a wise investment.
“You have to be able to make your money back on the deals,” he said, something Adamas is confident the E-470 project will do.
As for motorists who use E-470 every day, Arnason said he doesn’t expect them to notice the new solar arrays much.
“If you are driving on the road, those things just kind of blend in and they don’t look obtrusive,” he said.
Arnason said officials looked into some “green” alternatives, in part, because of the solar panel array in use near Denver International Airport.
That array, off Pena Boulevard near the main terminal, sits in a field between two lanes of a bustling road, an area that likely couldn’t be used for much.
Looking at that, Arnason said officials decided there were plenty of places like that near E-470 that couldn’t be used for much, but could be used to generate power.
“We had open space,” he said as he strolled through that sprawling array north of I-70. “This was a field here that was being used for nothing, and we’ve turned it into a field now that’s being used as a power plant, basically.”
Before they decided on a solar project, Arnason said officials considered wind power, hoping to tap the breezes that gust along the toll road every day.
After a bit of research, officials determined solar was a better option.
“There is a lot of cost in wind and there were better rebates with solar,” he said.