(Wahpeton)– The Wahpeton City Council is exploring the possibility of including an option to power a new water treatment facility with solar energy. As we reported previously, Wahpeton is in the process of putting together plans and designs for a new water treatment plant. City officials say adding solar to the specifications would increase engineering costs by $10,000 and would boost the overall project cost by an estimated $210,000. They say the system would pay for itself in 9.7 years through reduced or eliminated electric bills. But council member Rosalise Olsen says she’s skeptical and expressed concern over the cost…
“We already have spent $163,000 for the Kansas Avenue project that’s on hold because of the water plant. So I don’t really want to add any more investment into the water plant when we already have two projects that need to be done.”
The city council Monday was scheduled to act on revising the engineering agreement to include plans for solar but tabled the matter for further research. City officials say time is somewhat of the essence as federal renewable energy credits will likely be expiring soon.
