Land being donated to New Castle County could become the county's largest solar energy project to date.
New Castle County Council voted Tuesday to accept 19 acres of land donated by PFB Energy. The land is located near PFB’s Delaware City Refinery near Route 72, and is not being used by PBF’s refining operations.
County Executive Paul Clark intends to work with New Castle County Council to decide what to do with the land which is currently commercially zoned. "The concept of using it as it is presently zoned would add to some traffic in that area." said Clark.
Instead, Clark believes that using the land to build a solar farm would work best for New Castle County.
"We think it fits with our commitment to reduce our carbon footprint and use more green energy,' said Clark. "Making a solar farm and reducing some of the county's electric over the future years we thought would be a real plus for New Castle County."
The donation is part of a 2011 deal in which New Castle County gave PBF a five year property tax exemption as well as tax exempt bond financing as part of an incentive package from the county and the State of Delaware when PBF bought the then-shuttered refinery from Valero in 2010.
Karl Kalbacher, New Castle County Director of Economic Development estimates that the 19 acres are worth $546,000 and would be capable of producing four megawatts of solar energy, making it the largest solar project in New Castle County.
Should the county go forward with a solar park, Kalbacher told WDDE that the plan would be to sign a 20-year power purchase agreement with the company that would construct, operate and maintain the solar farm.
"The contract would include a fixed cost for purchase of the clean/renewable electricity. The County would essentially have about 50% of its electricity come from this clean renewable solar source," said Kalbacher in an email. "We would receive a payment for lease of the land from the solar operator."
Kalbacher added the amount of the lease would need to be worked out.