AGAWAM – A solar array farm on the north side of the old Tuckahoe Turf Farm is expected to be finished by fall of this year.

According to Town Solicitor Stephen Buoniconti, Agawam has been a part of long negotiations with Consolidated Edison, which is the utility company that will operate the array when it is built.

“We originally negotiated a lease agreement on the property,” said Buoniconti, with regard to the town’s relationship with ConEdison. “There are variables in that lease agreement that we didn’t know at the time that changed from then until now.”

There was a connectivity charge that Agawam needed to consider from that original agreement, as well. According to Buoniconti, Eversource Energy went out to review the property where the array will be implemented, and said that, if Agawam wanted to connect the solar to the grid, then the town would have to pay for that. The equipment costs for this process were more substantial than the town had imagined, which meant that the town would receive less from the lease.

“We went back to the drawing board, because we were unable to lease it at that rate,” said Buoniconti, who explained that the town renegotiated a lease with a new proposal.

If this new proposal passes during the next city council meeting, then the town would receive $156,000 from the operators in its first year on the lease, with annual payments rising 2.5 percent per year after that first year.

The solar farm is a part of Mayor William Sapelli’s extensive plan to renovate the 380-acre parcel that used to be Tuckahoe Farm. Fifty of those acres will be dedicated to the array, which will help pay for development in other parts of the farm.

“The additional money coming into the town on the lease will assist in the cost to develop a recreation area in the other section of the Tuckahoe parcel,” said Buoniconti.

Agawam is currently a part of the Green Energy Pact, which was signed with the state to continue the town’s effort to go green, and create more energy-efficient buildings. The town has also been awarded additional grant money from taking these initiatives, according to Buoniconti.

“[The solar array] is one of the pieces of us trying to go more and more green,” said Buoniconti, who added that Agawam currently has seven charging stations on a town network for electric vehicles.

There is also another solar project that Agawam will be working on in the coming year, and just went online last year. “It’s part of a whole portfolio that the town is trying to build to be more and more green,” said Buoniconti.

The town hopes to use grant moneys and money from the solar array to cover any additional costs within the parcel so taxpayers will not be affected. “The mayor is extremely dedicated to try and look for new sources in revenue to take pressure off of current taxpayers,” said Buoniconti.

Construction for the solar project will begin sometime in the spring.