SANDPOINT — City planners and Solar Roadways officials are finalizing plans for their joint project, a demonstration installation of solar collection panels at Jeff Jones Square. The city will benefit from recent and future upgrades of the hexagonal paving panels because Julie and Scott Brusaw, SR owners, are invested in keeping their hometown installation up to date, according to Jennifer Stapleton, city administrator.

"This will be an important demonstration project for them," she said. "As they develop new technology, the Sandpoint installation would be updated with the new technologies.”

Stapleton also provided the City Council some specs for the project at last week's regular meeting. Each tile contains 56 clusters of 6 LED lights, allowing for operators to change design and color.

"In addition to the LED lights, there are four interlocking circuit boards, each with its own heating element, which allow for selective snow melting," she said. "(This is) one of the adjustments in terms of development since we started working with them."

"Each panel contains 44 watts worth of polycrystalline solar cells. The output of (each group of) six panels feds a micro-inverter — five will be used in this installation. This will be back-feeding energy into the grid. We’ll also be looking at powering the fountain or the restrooms," she said. 

The city plans to include a kisok near the installation that shows visitors how much energy it is collecting in real time. People will be able to access the same information on the Sandpoint city website.

"There’s a great deal of interest in the project. We have national media contacting us regularly to get an install date. Our project will be the first project," Stapleton said.

She also mentioned the opportunity to choose the configuration of the panels from three proposed designs.

"When will the design decisions be finalized?” asked Councilwoman Shannon Williamson.

“We talked about putting (the design choices) up on our website, seeking community input," said Stapleton. "Before we go in to do the prep work and cut out the concrete, we will need to have a finalized design.” 

The installation is tentatively scheduled to get underway in late August or early September.

"Solar Roadways will be ordering all the materials this week and will begin assembly of the panels once the materials come in," she said.