In Kentucky.

Some cities in the Commonwealth have set timelines to go green.

That means powering the city buildings and machines with almost exclusive of renewable energy.

We take a look at Frankfort, where city leaders say they're just the right community to be an example for the rest of the state.

Our June LaFleur has more.

At Kentucky's capital.

Renewable energy is a hot button issue, but not so much in Frankfort.

The elected city council in 2021 unanimously set a goal to go green by 2030.

There are probably ratepayers out there who don't think that renewable energy is the future and would not agree with this pathway.

But I think what they would agree with is that if we can do anything as a city leadership to reduce our operational costs permanently, that would be a wise thing to do.

Mayor Lane Wilkerson says powering Frankfort City operations like keeping the lights on at City Hall or treating Frankfurt's drinking water can cost upwards of $3 million a year.

If we can reduce that by half, you know, that's a big savings for a city our size, and it would free up money to do other things.

Staff salaries, making investments in the community, perhaps lowering taxes.

Renewable energy can save money in the long run, but it requires upfront costs to install a wind, solar or hydro system.

That's where federal funding comes in.

The city will submit an application this fall for $20 million available through the Inflation Reduction Act.

We have a good story.

We have a good narrative, and we've already done a lot of the homework.

Frankfort employed the National Renewable Energy Lab to see if going green is even doable.

The lab said yes.

To get to 100% renewable energy, the best pathway for it is to build a utility scale size solar array, though it's not just and we're not going to get there just putting solar on all over the rooftops of our city buildings.

The city's partner in this energy overhaul is the local municipal utility.

The public entity works for customers, not shareholders.

If they want it to truly go green tomorrow and cost wasn't a factor, they could go to green tomorrow.

Is how do you think of doing this in a sustainable way?

Not only environmentally, but also economically and socially.

Even before the city set its green energy goals, the Frankfort Plant Board resolved to add more renewable energy sources to its grid, in part to steady the electricity rates it sets.

For too long, we've been relying on sometimes just single sources of power.

And when you are then the price fluctuations go up like we've seen in natural gas historically.

It can really have a downstream impact on ratepayers and things.

The Frankfort Plant Board started harvesting solar in its own backyard last year.

The array is a community solar program, meaning interested customers help pay for the panels and the utility locks in their energy rates for years to come.

On a grander scale, in 2018, the local utility, in partnership with the Kentucky Municipal Energy Agency, decided to build what will be the state's largest solar array.

Which comes online this fall.

And when that comes online, our renewable energy portfolio will go from 1% to a 19% portfolio.

The Ashwood solar array in western Kentucky will serve eight communities and double the state's solar energy production.

Making one large step towards a brighter, greener future for Frankfort.

For Kentucky Edition, I'm June Leffler.

Thank you.

June and 2020, the city of Louisville set its own goals to run entirely off of clean energy.

The city plans to power all public city operations with green energy by 2030 and do the same for the entire Metro area by 2040.