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The Select Board will wait to gather more information about building a solar array on a disused town landfill after town staff said they don’t have the expertise to evaluate the proposal.
Jeffrey Wootan, a Harpswell Neck resident who retired from a career in solar power, has proposed installing five rows of solar panels on a capped landfill north of the transfer station. Wootan said the array would offset the town’s current electricity usage, paying for the system within a decade and effectively providing free electricity to town buildings for at least 20 years after that.
At a Select Board meeting on Thursday, Nov. 5, Town Administrator Kristi Eiane said an energy consultant, Geoff Sparrow, told town staff he wasn’t sure if the landfill proposal was the best option for Harpswell.
Select Board member David Chipman said he and Howard Marshall, chair of the town’s Energy and Technology Committee, had recently met with the Mitchell Field Committee about a new proposal to build a 1-acre array there. In 2024, voters rejected a plan for the town to lease 5 acres of Mitchell Field to a solar company.
Matt Gilley, another Select Board member, suggested that the town might be able to get more advice about the landfill proposal if it secures a grant from a federal Department of Energy program meant to increase energy affordability, reliability and resiliency for coastal, island and remote communities. Town Planner Margaret McIntire is pursuing the grant.
Eiane said town staff felt like they were under pressure to make a decision quickly, because Wootan had pointed out that the town could qualify for expiring federal tax credits if it finished building the array in 2027.
“By waiting, I understand that we give up on the incentive, but we also don’t rush something that we don’t have all the answers to,” Gilley said.
Wootan told the meeting that, aside from the estimated cost of building an array on the landfill, the other estimates in his proposal — such as the rate of return on the town’s investment — should hold true if the town decides to build in another location.
The Select Board did not take a formal vote on the proposal, but gave town staff its blessing to seek more information before making a recommendation.
