In 2023, San Antonio, Texas’s, city council approved the $30 million solar project for 42 sites, reportedly the largest municipal on-site solar project with a completion date of fall 2026. The Municipalchecked in to see how the project was progressing.

Deputy Sustainability Officer Golda Obinzu said 42 sites in that time frame might’ve been “ambitious,” as the city hasn’t completed as many sites as it had aimed to by now, but she believes it will achieve the 13 mega watts of solar contracted, whether that will be 38 or 42 sites. Right now, San Antonio is on track to be within the $30 million cost.

Obinzu said in fiscal year 2024, which encompassed October 2023 through September 2024, the city completed six sites.

“The first site we were able to energize was our Jean Yates Community Center,” she reported and added it was a rooftop installation. The building falls under the parks and recreation department.

“We had to coordinate the installation of panels, shutting down power with CPS Energy, etc.”

Other projects completed the first year were rooftop installations on the Southside Lions Senior Center, a Pre-K 4 San Antonio East and the Melendrez Community Center. Parking lot canopies were installed that year at West Police Substation and Southwest Service Center, which Obinzu said was the largest one.

She said that first year officials learned coordination was key. “We saw that there’s more to coordination than we thought. If there were cameras, we had to call in the IT people, for example, or the coordination involved when we have to shut down the power.”

This fiscal year, from October 2024 to the present, San Antonio has completed another seven or eight projects.

“We did our first fire station,” she said.

Fire Station #37 was a rooftop installation. Other rooftop installations included at the Garza Community Center and the San Antonio Fire Department Service Garage. Workers installed parking lot canopies at the West Police Station and Northeast Senior Center and installed rooftop and parking lot canopy installations at Cliff Morton Development and Business Services Center, the John Igo Library, which was completed in February, and at the Public Safety Answering Point. That last installment was “the largest to date, almost a megawatt,” according to Obinzu. It was completed in January 2025.

Obinzu said, “There are 10-12 more projects in the works for this fiscal year, so we’re hoping to get 18-20 under our belts this year. Then, in 2026, we hope to complete whatever is left.”

When asked if the systems are wholly solar, she said, “All these solar systems are behind the meter. When we did the RFPs to vendors, we asked the solar systems be sized no more than 80%.”

The systems average around 70-80%, and some, because of the size or output of the facility, could be 60-70%. She explained there were a couple of situations, like at cooling centers, where they are battery-ready in case the city should want to go that route in the future, but for now, if power goes down they don’t want the solar systems producing energy because of the inter-connection agreement with CPS Energy, the municipal-owned electric and natural gas utility, and said basically that was for safety reasons.

Obinzu was asked if the solar shade canopies for pickle ball courts and basketball courts were happening, and she responded they weren’t feasible at this time, though that could change in the future.

Impacts and challenges

Concerning the solar project’s impact, she said, “One thing it does is lower what the city pays for utilities for that department.”

She explained any savings achieved are used to pay back the debts incurred from the projects — the state loans, certificates of obligation and direct pay tax credits through the Internal Revenue Service under the Inflation Reduction Act.

As for the parking lot canopies, she’s heard that employees are arriving at work earlier in order to get a shaded parking space.

“Here in San Antonio, if you’re parked outside, it can get up to 110-130 degrees in your car. It’s about 30 degrees less under the canopy, so that’s a big difference,” she said. “And it helps keep the greenhouse gas emissions reduced. That’s a big benefit for our department but directly for employees — shaded parking is a big benefit.”

As to whether or not the departments would directly benefit from the savings once the debt was paid, Obinzu said no. The city has entered an operations and maintenance agreement with Big Sun Solar.

“We don’t want departments to have the sole responsibility for these, so on a quarterly basis, Big Sun will maintain per our O&M agreement. These panels generally have a 25-year life span,” she said.

When asked about the project’s challenges, she said, for her, it was getting the initial approval.

“Surprisingly, the challenge was it took about two to two and a half years to develop the RFPs and go through the procurement process because they haven’t done anything like this before. So, to me, getting the council’s approval was a challenge. My boss might not agree with that, but once we got the green light, implementation is my specialty.”

Obinzu said she’s been with the city for 10 years, so she’s developed relationships with people in other departments, which helped when they had to present implementation plans to them. She admitted coordination was a little tricky at first sometimes. “But so far, we’ve been successful because they want it.”

Especially once the departments see a project completed somewhere; it makes them more eager to have their site done.

Obinzu was asked if she was concerned that some national challenges might affect the project, like funding freezes for some energy projects and potential tariffs, for example. She replied that funding hasn’t been an issue as of yet. The city is using state loans, and she said, “So far, on the federal level, the IRS hasn’t been touched, so we can submit for rebates (on direct pay tax credits), and I’ve heard some cities have received checks.”

As for the tariffs, they might have an impact. She said the panels are made locally, but it’s possible that inverters or other electrical components could be affected in the future. She explained when the city approved the $30 million project, it wasn’t a blanket approval. The vendor is getting approval site by site — a statement of work. For example, the vendor is told for a community center this much money is available for that particular site, and they move forward like that, piece by piece.

“So, for fiscal year 2026, if the cost were to significantly increase, we’d have to sit down and talk about that, so that’s a good question.”

Goals remain the same

Forty-two sites completed remains San Antonio’s goal, but Obinzu explained, “What’s contracted with Big Sun Solar is they must provide the city with 13 megawatts, so whether that is 38 sites or 44 sites, but we will achieve the 13 megawatts.”

She said San Antonio has plans for all the sites. So far, the city is on track for the $30 million cost as well. “So far we haven’t had to amend any costs. We’re coming in within budget.”

As for what savings the city expects to see from this project, Obinzu said, “We’re estimating a reduction of 11% of the city’s current energy consumption, and we estimated over 25 years a cost savings of $7 million to $11 million; that’s based on 42 sites.” She added, “We’re trying to get to net zero, that’s a pretty big goal as the city has about 300-400 facilities.”

In a Feb. 12 press release about the commissioning of the Public Safety Answering Point facility, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg was quoted as saying, “One of our key municipal strategies is to reduce building energy consumption for all municipal buildings by 2040. With this installation and the future completed sites, we are making significant strides toward that goal. These solar PV installations will not only help us improve our municipal building energy efficiency but also result in cost savings, shade and weather protection and local jobs.”

Obinzu said the city pays about $38 million annually in electricity costs, so with the 13 megawatts of solar, it will get to an 11% offset.

Obinzu didn’t hesitate when asked if she had advice to share, saying she gave a couple of presentations where she was asked “If you could do it all again,” so she readily shared that even before cities get to the RFP stage, get everybody involved.

“And I mean everybody! We had like 11 departments involved. The city has 40 departments. You need to have IT folks, finance folks, risk department or insurance folks, maintenance — the departments you don’t think about getting on board need to be at the table from the get go,” she said.

These departments may think of things that others do not. Obinzu mentioned the discovery that one of the canopy designs obstructed cameras. Her other piece of advice was to “line out for vendors what the city expects the vendor to do, and what the city is going to do.”

Chief Sustainability Officer Douglas Melnick was quoted in that Feb. 12 press release, also, saying, “San Antonio continues to set an example with innovative initiatives like this one.”

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