Future City Fellowship Solar and Battery Storage Proposal

At a glance

Based on auto-generated captions; names and details may be misheard.

What: Campbell University students (Future City Fellowship pilot, working with David Ingram) presented a plan for city-owned solar and battery storage toward the city's goals of 50% clean municipal energy by 2035 and 100% by 2050.
Where it stands: presented to the committee on 2026-10-12; no vote or adoption. It is a student study, not a city plan.
Next: members suggested follow-up work on load shedding savings and efficiency.

Solar on about 533,000 sq ft of suitable municipal roof, plus parking lots; batteries (Tesla Powerwall and Megapack) at fire stations, police headquarters and the operations campus for load shaving and short-term backup.
Three phases: 2027-2033 (permitting, structural assessments, 15 buildings), a short second phase to reach 50% by 2035 (8 buildings), then 2037-2050 (remaining buildings, parking lots, convention center). Even so, 100% by 2050 would need other solutions.
Cost: about $36 million (static model) vs about $86 million (Monte Carlo, plus or minus $17 million); about $43 million if panels run to 50% of output before replacement.
Offshore wind, tidal and river options were ruled out (jurisdiction, salt corrosion).

DJ Klein and others noted the model assumed demand doubles in a straight line with no efficiency gains; efficiency is a major committee focus.
Grants are estimated at $600,000 to $14 million but are uncertain.
Suggested: resell retired panels, and quantify load shedding savings for council.

About 46 minutes across 1 meeting (from transcript timestamps; approximate).

Meeting	Minutes
2026-10-12 - Clean Energy Advisory Committee	46

2026-10-12 - Clean Energy Advisory Committee - student presentation (roughly 24 minutes) and 22 minutes of questions; no vote.
2026-10-22 - Page created from a posted agenda; no meeting transcript processed yet.