Renewable energy provided only about one tenth of the energy supply in Arkansas in 2020 and the upfront cost of alternatives, like solar, can be a barrier to implementation. With the Solar Services Agreement, the upfront costs go away; instead, CALS agrees to purchase the electricity generated by a 998kW array built, owned and operated by Entegrity over the next 25 years. This quickly reduces our reliance on fossil fuels and allows us to be a leader for green practices in our state.

In 2017, CALS and the Arkansas Energy Office conducted an energy audit and worked with Entegrity to implement energy efficiency improvements and reduce utility costs. The savings were used to build a 66 kW solar array at our Children’s Library. Moving the majority of CALS electric consumption to solar was the next challenge, and we continued to partner with Entegrity to solve it. The resulting Solar Services Agreement let us rapidly switch the majority of our electric consumption to renewable energy.

The energy audit and 66 kW array have saved $289,900 in utility costs over the past two years. The new 998 kW array is projected to save up to $2.2 million over the 25-year term of our agreement. Working on these projects led to the creation of a staff Green Team to further promote sustainable policies, programs, and procedures and resulted in a systemwide recycling initiative and programming focused on sustainability. In 2021, CALS’s board of trustees approved a sustainability policy for the system.