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Sustainability Advisory Board <br />Minutes <br />January 18, 2023 <br />Page 5 of 8 <br />Public Comment <br />RJ Harrington: RJ commented that he helped to write the community solar <br />language that became law and is excited about the ability of US Solar to scale up <br />to meet Louisville's needs and customer management abilities. He questioned if <br />the City was still planning to partner with Boulder County and Solar United <br />Neighbors. <br />Kayla noted that solar co-ops are different from solar gardens and the board will <br />discuss Solar United Neighbors at a future meeting. <br />LSAB Discussion <br />Tiffany asked about US Solar's land use policy (soil health, carbon sequestration) <br />and how the bidding process works with Xcel for these projects. Tim answered <br />that soil health is one of the main reasons for replanting pollinator -friendly <br />habitat. He didn't give specifics, but said US Solar has an internal GIS team that <br />maps out land for long-term leases. Bidding has to do with understanding what <br />Xcel's ambitions are and where they want to allocate the megawatt projects to be <br />awarded and US Solar's development team identifies what proposal would best <br />meet Xcel's and community's priorities. <br />John said that Louisville only has 72 resident subscribers for area solar gardens <br />and he asked how many homeowners could fit into the US Solar plan for the CO <br />region and when will these gardens become available. Tim answered that US <br />Solar is in the permitting and construction process currently for nine projects <br />(including one in Weld County, one in Larimer County, and six in Arapahoe <br />County around brownfields and a Superfund Site). The company is currently <br />enrolling for summer 2023 for existing projects that are expected to be completed <br />by then. He said there are roughly 5,000 residential subscriptions available now <br />for existing projects (under construction or in planning) for the 35-40 megawatts <br />the CO gardens will produce. He added that commercial subscriptions are a <br />different side of their initiative. <br />Josh asked how WindSource relates to US Solar renewable subscriptions. Tim <br />answered that this is a very different structure and it's a separate line item on the <br />