It's time for this biweekly meeting of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee of Denver City Council.

Join us for the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee starting now.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Cashman, is this you?

Okay, there we go.

Good afternoon.

My name is Chantel M.

Lewis, and I represent the residents of District 8.

Welcome to our Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Do you have around online?

All right, right.

Well, we'll start with you, Castle.

Good afternoon.

Paul Cashman, South Denver District 6.

Great.

Thank you.

So we have one action item and we have one briefing.

Our first action item is actually done by from the Denver International Airport.

And so you all can do a round of introductions and get started.

Phil Washington, CEO of Denver International Airport.

Jim Sterling, I'm the Chief Construction and Infrastructure Officer.

Scott Morrissey, the Senior Vice President for Sustainability.

Thank you.

We'll dive right in.

Thank you.

Well, first, uh, thank you everyone for being here and allowing us to talk about our latest solar program that we are presenting to you today.

Um, I did want to start with just some high-level context about the airport's broader solar program.

As you know, this is just one piece of our sustainability portfolio, um, includes everything from our ISO 14,001 environmental management system to our green building and infrastructure program to our energy performance contract to our stormwater and glycol um collection program to our waste reduction programs.

But this really is part of our program that we are probably best known for across the country.

Um, it is really one of the largest renewable energy programs of any airport within the entire world.

Um, the vast majority of our solar portfolio is the kind of project that we're going to be talking about today, which is a ground mounted behind the meter um uh photovoltaic system.

Um, but we have done a number of different programs over the course of the last several years to try to diversify our solar portfolio, including community solar gardens, both um ones that we've done independently and those that we've done with our partners in the climate office, um, as well as um concourse expansion rooftop solar that we installed as part of those programs.

Um, we have a solar canopy at on the 61st and pain yeah parking lot, um, and we do subscribe to Excel Energy's Renewable Connect program, which allows us to access power from solar that's generated that just doesn't happen to be on the airport site.

Um, but for this particular project and requested council action, um, we are requesting approval of two connected contracts to allow this solar project to move forward.

Um, the first is a lease agreement.

Um, both of these contracts are 25 years in the lease agreement and license as well as the power purchase agreement gives us the ability to have all of the approvals that we need to be able to implement this solar solution.

Um so focused on the lease agreement itself.

Um, there is a um defined rent that has been established at fair market value in um in accordance with FAA regulations.

Um it is a 90-acre lease, so this will be the largest solar project that we've ever done um at Den.

And um we believe it is also the largest solar project in the entire city and county of Denver.

Um, and there is significant revenue that comes along with this.

Um, in terms of the power purchase agreement, um, the power purchase agreement is the mechanism by which we actually purchase the solar that gets generated by this PV system.

Um we have worked very hard over the course of the last 17 years now that we've been doing solar projects at the airport to make sure that we are um really focused to have to ensure that these are the best possible um financial investments for the airport to make, um, but also come with all of the environmental benefits that we're going to talk about.

And so this particular project um again is a uh 17.5 uh I'm sorry, an 18 megawatt um uh PV system, um, but it comes with a 17.5% reduction on each kilowatt hour of electricity that gets purchased compared to um the typical um Excel rate tariff that we would otherwise be playing paying.

And so we've really focused on this index approach.

So rather than paying a specific rate, we have indexed it to the avoided cost of electricity to ensure that we get an immediate cost savings, but that that cost savings will persist over the entire 25-year term.

You can see some of the energy benefits associated with it.

But again, I would just point out this is a very large system projected to generate 31 million kilowatt hours of electricity, which even in the context of the airport in our operations is a is a significant amount.

This project being a power purchase agreement, it is financed, designed, constructed, operated, and maintained by the solar developer.

This is a really advantageous model for public sector entities because it allows developers who have experience in solar development to come in, take all of the risk associated with the cost.

There is no upfront cost of the airport, the production risk, the long-term financial risk, all of that is pushed to the developer.

And we do, as an airport, what we do best, which is purchasing electricity to support the airport operations and to support our greenhouse gas emission reduction goals.

Both the city and the state have building performance standards that have been rolled out in the last couple of years.

I think you know that we have been really focused on lead certifications for new construction.

Three out of our last four concourse expansion projects were all certified to the lead platinum level, which is the highest level within that program.

And having solar like this is very supportive of all of those kinds of external requirements that we have.

So in terms of the contract itself, Disbo did review this project and determined that it was exempt from goals.

And the reason for that is because of the way that Excel Energy procures solar projects to it to meet their internal and statewide goals.

From the city's perspective, this is actually a sole source contract.