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PROPOSED CONTRACT
Department(s): Environmental Control
Vendor: Elevate Energy, Chicago, Illinois
Request: Authorization for the Chief Procurement Officer to enter into and execute
Good(s) or Service(s): Solar Market Pathway Grant
Contract Value: $864,486.00
Contract period: 4/1/2015 - 7/1/2017, with one (1), one (1) year renewal option
Potential Fiscal Year Budget Impact: N/A - grant funded USDOE Solar Market Pathway Grant
Accounts: 669-260
Contract Number(s): 1585-14389
Concurrences:
Vendor has met the Minority and Women Business Enterprise Ordinance.
The Chief Procurement Officer concurs.
Summary: The Cook County Department of Environmental Control was awarded $1.23 Million over 2 ½ years from the U.S. Department of Energy (USDOE) through the Solar Market Pathways SunShot initiative.
Community shared solar uses a solar-electric system that provides power and/or financial benefits such as savings to multiple community members, expanding access to solar power to renters, condo owners, those whose roofs are too shady, and those who cannot afford to install an entire roof full of solar panels. The SunShot initiative is intended to enable replicable multi-year strategies that spur significant solar deployment, drive down solar soft costs, support local economic development efforts, and address the potential challenges arising from increased solar penetration on the electrical grid.
Project Tasks:
1. Opportunity Assessment: Inventory the current community solar market in the county, and identify the potential market by suitable available sites (supply) and customer base (demand). This will inform selection of pilot projects and identification of stakeholders.
2. Stakeholder Outreach and Engagement: Facilitate stakeholder collaboration to identify, discuss, and resolve community-shared solar challenges in Northeast Illinois.
3. Research Policy Issues and Market Barriers: Address the policy and market barriers that impose challenges to shared solar success.
4. Design Pilot Demonstration Programs: Choose 5 - 7 pilot project sites based on what is learned from tasks 1 - 3. Analyze the physical and economic potential of those pilots.
5. Benefits and Next Steps: Document and disseminate the pilot site analysis of costs and benefits to local, state and regional stakeholders.
The USDOE grant that will fund this project was based on a proposal that included this work being performed by Elevate Energy. This is a Sole Source Procurement pursuant to Section 34-139 of the Cook County Procurement Code.
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