Little Rock Goes Green: Sun Hog Solar Negotiates Deal to Power 70% of Municipal Electricity

Bill Halter, CEO of Scenic Hill Solar (Kerry Prichard)

Sun Hog Solar LLC is negotiating a deal with Little Rock to build a 4.9-megawatt solar array to supply about 70% of the municipal government’s electricity needs.

The goal is to beat a Sept. 30 sundown for interconnection.

If Sun Hog is an unfamiliar name, here’s why: It’s a subsidiary of Scenic Hill Solar of Little Rock, the company that former Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter incorporated in 2015 and now the largest solar developer headquartered in Arkansas.

“Sun Hog holds our general contractor’s license,” Halter told Arkansas Business. “It’s 100% owned by Scenic Hill, and we use it as a contracting entity when we’re going to build and turnkey-deliver a project.”

Plans call for Little Rock to buy the solar facility after it’s completed.

“To build you need a general contractor’s license, and we’ve used Sun Hog multiple times,” Halter said, including for solar arrays the company built at L’Oreal cosmetics plants in North Little Rock and near Cincinnati.

Halter said it was too early to talk about the Little Rock array, and he didn’t discuss project costs, which are under negotiation with the Little Rock Board of Directors.

The board unanimously approved the solar plans early this month, authorizing a city contract with Sun Hog once the board secures financing. The city hopes to power 100% of its operations with clean energy by 2030.

Interconnection before Oct. 1 would assure the city a better return on its solar investment via the state’s current policy on net metering, the accounting process that gives solar customers credit for the power they put onto the electric grid. That credit is now equal to the retail rate utilities charge their customers, about 10 cents per kilowatt-hour. For new solar systems interconnected after Oct. 1, that net-metering credit will essentially be cut in half.

Little Rock is also taking advantage of federal tax credits that could save it 40% of construction costs.

Many municipalities, counties, schools and nonprofits are racing the Oct. 1 deadline.

Southeast Arkansas College in Pine Bluff flipped a ceremonial switch this month on a $6.9 million, 366-kilowatt solar array. It is part of a 20-year performance contract with Bernhard LLC that the college expects to bring savings of $630,000 a year. Delta Solar of Little Rock installed the panels.

The energy-as-a-service contract, which takes advantage of Higher Education Emergency Relief funding allocated during the COVID pandemic, should cut power and maintenance costs, improve campus air quality, and enhance safety and infrastructure resiliency, officials said.

Arkansas is on the cusp of an energy transformation, Arkansas Advanced Energy Association Director Lauren Waldrip said, praising solar expansion.

“The job creation potential is exponential,” Waldrip told Arkansas Business. “As we see coal plants inevitably coming off the grid, the growth of renewable energy generation is not just an opportunity for diversification but an economic imperative to replace lost load generation.”

Renewable power’s economic benefits “are simply one piece” of a diversified energy strategy, Waldrip said. “By diversifying our energy mix, we reduce reliance on any single energy source, stabilize energy prices, and enhance our energy security,” she said, benefiting consumers and businesses.

She said funding from the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 offers a historic opportunity to reshape the industry.  “It will help us to invest in things like transmission expansion and ultimately save ratepayers money,” she said. “The future of energy in Arkansas is bright, and it hinges on a strategic and diverse approach to our energy resources.”