Business View Magazine | March 2020

331 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE MARCH 2020 NI XA , MI SSOUR I come up with solutions to problems that we may be facing. We’re always looking for ways to be innovative and think outside the box, and that’s how we approach all the problems that we face.” Regarding the city’s innovation award for solar power, Doug Colvin, Assistant City Administrator and Director of Nixa Utilities and Public Works, explains that Nixa does not generate any of its own power, but rather purchases it from City Utilities of Springfield and the Southwestern Power Administration. However, since 2017, it has also purchased about 10 percent of its electricity from the Nixa Solar Farm, which is owned by a private firm, Gardner Capital, and operated by MC Power Companies. The City of Nixa has an agreement to buy 100 percent of the power generated from the 72-acre facility which includes 33,288 solar panels, capable of generating up to 7.92 megawatts of AC power. “That was a really big effort to satisfy our customers who wanted us to do more on the renewable energy side,” Colvin states. “It required us to build some lines out to the solar farm, and we had a local property owner that got involved by offering a very attractive lease for the property for 99 years. It really worked well because there was a collaboration among four different entities that came together to be able to provide renewable energy, which is a service that our customers were asking for. The Innovation Award that we won was specifically for our work as a public/private partnership. The other thing is that over the long-term life of the contract, we’ll save somewhere between $2.5 and $4 million. And because it was very well received by the community, they want us to continue. So, we’re working on a project, now, to add another 10MWs of wind energy. That hasn’t happened yet, but it’s moving forward to happen as early as this summer. So, we’re pretty excited about that.” Another example of Nixa’s innovative approach was its decision in 2018 to sell its electric Nixa Solar Farm - Courtesy of the City of Nixa