|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
It’s not exactly trash to treasure, but an old landfill behind Harpswell’s current Transfer Station could be the site of a solar array that powers several nearby municipal buildings.
The person behind the idea, Harpswell Neck resident Jeffrey Wootan, told the Anchor that with electrical costs trending up, “We should be looking seriously at practical opportunities to reduce energy costs.”
His detailed proposal estimates the project would cost about $350,000, but he calculated that it would pay for itself in under nine years and produce almost $1.75 million in revenue over 30 years.
Wootan estimated that electricity rates climb more than 3% each year, based on data from the last two decades. The town also could sell renewable energy credits for the power generated, which Wootan said could produce about $5,000 in annual profit.
Two town bodies, the Energy and Technology Committee and the Resiliency and Sustainability Committee, have heard presentations by Wootan, who has worked in the solar industry for several decades.
Select Board member David Chipman attended those meetings and seemed enthusiastic about the idea. He said he plans to take a proposal to the rest of the board in the hope of getting it to voters at the next Town Meeting, in March 2027.
The proposal is to install five rows of panels on the north end of the capped landfill behind the transfer station.
When a landfill is closed, it is capped, or covered with layers of soil, gravel and other materials. The site looks like a meadow covering a small hill in the middle of dense woods.
Compared to burning fossil fuels, which is how the majority of New England’s power is produced, Wootan said that relying on solar power would avoid releasing about 1,440 tons of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, over 30 years. Wootan compared that amount to what more than 300 cars would emit driving for a single year.
Wootan told the Energy and Technology Committee on Sept. 15 that the location is ideal for a solar array. Its orientation allows panels to face due south, the direction that receives the most sunlight, and the surrounding trees are far enough away that they only block about 1% of the available sunlight. Better still, he said, the town already owns the land, and the site isn’t likely to be used for another purpose.
“It’s a perfect location,” Chipman said at the meeting.
The panels would produce about 200 megawatt-hours of electricity per year, which would cover the electricity usage at the Town Office, the Recycling Center and Transfer Station, and the garage used by on-call paramedics. Wootan arrived at the number after determining from electrical bills that the town uses about 210 megawatt-hours annually. The town currently buys solar credits for its electrical usage, saving 15% on the market rate.
The amount of electricity produced by solar panels decreases as they age. Wootan estimated that the array would lose one-quarter of a percent in efficiency each year, meaning the array would lose almost 8% efficiency over 30 years. But Wootan said many farms continue operating after their planned lifespan, continuing to generate electricity even as the efficiency is slowly declining.
The landfill site has room to add more panels, too, according to Wootan. And there’s a second capped landfill southwest of the Transfer Station that could also house panels. That leaves room to add solar that could be used to power planned town buildings, like the central fire station.
Wootan said electricity from a solar farm on those sites could be sold to households, but Energy and Technology Committee Chair Howard Marshall expressed some hesitation about introducing complications to the discussion at this point.
Wootan believes the project could be completed in 2027 if voters approve the expenditure in March. He offered to write a request for proposals from contractors and to manage the construction.
In 2024, Harpswell voters rejected a proposal from the company ReVision Energy to lease 5 acres of Mitchell Field for 25 years to build a solar farm. The Select Board voted unanimously not to recommend that proposal, citing low revenue potential and an apparent lack of community support for a solar farm in a busy town park.
Sam Lemonick is a staff reporter at the Harpswell Anchor. He can be reached at slemonick@harpswellanchor.org.
