Volcano resident Jay Storer stands next to the solar panels that help power his home. The county administration building will soon have solar panels on its roof. Photo by: Jenifer Gee

Solar panels will sprout on the roof of the new Amador County Administration Center, under a program designed not only to save the county money, but also to switch it to renewable energy and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

The board of supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to go forward with the program, which is expected to net the county $662,766 in savings by 2031. The program will have a negative cash flow for the first 15 years, however, as the loan is paid off.

Tom Baker, executive officer of the California Construction Authority, told the supervisors that about $500,000 of the $1.3 million cost of the program can be recouped through a Pacific Gas & Electric Co. grant, for which the county has already been approved.

The rest will be financed through federal clean energy bonds for which the county has already applied. The federal money will come from the government's 2005 Clean Renewable Energy Bonds, which sets aside $500 million for government entities.

Energy costs are predicted to rise between 3 to 5 percent, according to Baker.

One unknown at the moment is the term of the loan from the federal government for the photovoltaic energy system - those terms are expected to require repayment in either 10 or 16 years.

"They haven't come out with all the rules," Baker said.

The other unknown is the interest rate for the loan, though that is expected to be around 1.5 percent.

Solar panels come with a 25-year warranty, Baker said, but panels installed in the 1960s are still operating, and the technology and equipment keep improving.

Of the $1.3 million cost of the system, 70 percent would go toward the cost of the panels, 15 percent would cover the cost of the inverters and the remaining 15 percent would be for installation.

An earlier proposal to include solar panels on the roofs of carports was characterized as not cost effective by Baker. The current plan focuses just on the rooftop of the building itself.

Since the county hasn't occupied its new offices for a full year yet, the building's actual energy needs are not known. The county moved into the new building in late June 2005. Any excess energy that might be generated would flow back into the grid for distribution to other customers, and the county would be paid for that excess power.

Current plans, Baker said, call for putting as many solar panels as will fit on the southern, eastern and western exposures of the roof.

In answer to a question from Forster, County Administrative Officer Pat Blacklock said he thinks the solar electricity program is "a reasonable venture" for the county, because of the low-interest financing.

Last year he cautioned the supervisors that the project would require $900,000 up front for financing, and expressed some reluctance for them to take on the additional debt. The CREBs funding now reduces the county's up-front costs to about $38,000, and Blacklock said this week that that makes it reasonable.

Baker recommended against prepayment, because the interest rate is so low. Investing any surplus revenue, he said, would earn the county more than it would spend in paying the small amount of interest.

Jon Hopkins, director of the county's General Services Agency, told the supervisors that he would come back for further direction from them if the bids come back higher than expected.

Last year when the supervisors looked into the proposition, they were told that installing solar energy to run the county building would reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants caused by conventional power generation systems.

A solar system for the new county building, they were told, could result in eliminating 225,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere annually, as well as providing the county with more predictable energy costs, creating a more reliable electric distribution system and reducing the likelihood of rolling blackouts.

Baker said after the meeting that the amount of pollutants that would be eliminated would depend on just how many panels can be fit onto the roof. On a bright summer day, he said, the initial design would be expected to generate about 160 kilowatt hours of electricity per hour.

The county has a memorandum of understanding with the California Construction Authority, which is a joint powers agency formed in 1988 to help with management, planning, design and construction of projects at fairgrounds.

Through the authority, a system providing 5 million watts of solar power has been set up at fairgrounds throughout the state, Baker said, and another 3 million watts are under construction.

Amador County Fairground in Plymouth was among those that got the solar panels.

The construction authority, which is a state agency, developed its program to purchase solar equipment at low cost and to manage the design and installation of the "green energy" systems for fairgrounds and other public agencies.