Time pressure pushes solar vote in Williamsburg

May 23, 2023 | Doc Pruyne
dpruyne@thereminder.com

WILLIAMSURG — Twenty people attended the May 17 meeting of the Energy and Public Safety Building Committees, including the fire and police chiefs, the end users of the public safety complex being built on the previous site of the Helen E. James School.

The end users, Fire Chief Jason Connell and Police Chief Denise Wickland, voiced misgivings about plans for a solar installation on a canopy over the whole parking lot. The concerns of other attendees, including Board of Selectmen and Finance Committee members, an architect and solar consultant, were toward making a decision before $750,000 in Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness grant money goes away.

MVP grants for design and installation must be used soon or they will be lost. The town would then need to chip in that much more in tax receipts, an unsettling prospect. But the door may be closing on the project anyway, for months, because applications for solar arrays may be delayed by National Grid.

Andreas Schmid, vice president of business development for Solect Energy, which bills itself as the largest provider of solar services to municipalities in the state, gave an off the cuff overview of limits on new solar projects that originates within National Grid, the electrical utility for the town. According to Schmid, the power provider processes applications for new solar arrays in a region until the need becomes apparent to study the impact all the new energy generation will have on the regional power grid. A group study is initiated, which might take months to complete, time when no new applications get a green light.

An individual study of one project can be done, but that would add thousands of dollars to the costs. The better plan is to get the application in before any study gets started.

“The sooner we get that into them the sooner we get in the room before the door closes,” said Bill Sayre, co-chair of the Building Committee. “To do that, my understanding is that we need to tell Solect what our basic decision is about solar.”

“The door is kind of half closed already,” Schmid said. “There’s currently no hosting capacity listed in your utility line,” no room for more projects, “but no group study has been initiated yet.”

The benefits the solar array would bring to the town are plain. The roof array will generate 67% of the building needs, for a yearly savings of $22,848. With a full canopy system generation would hit 127% of building needs. Unused energy could be used to offset energy charges for other town buildings. A half canopy is also an option, though generation would be lower.

“The difference is about $24,000 that the town would not see in net benefits if we go with a half canopy,” Sayre said. “That’s the essential difference between the two versions.”

The canopy option didn’t sit well with the end users, Wickland and Connell, who objected to it for different reasons. Connell wanted a careful vetting process and room to train.

“Nobody’s against solar over the parking lot,” Connell said. “But doing it without seeing the renderings, that’s not the way to do it.” The company anticipated a good space for drills. “The Fire Department was excited about getting a…place of our own, [But] this is going to limit the training if we do a full canopy.”
Wickland said the canopy will obscure the new complex and her doorway.

“If we put a full canopy there, if you’re driving down Rte. 9 you can’t tell where the entrance to the Police Department is,” Wickland said. “Taking over that whole area with a full canopy, I don’t think it will look good for the project.”

Paul Wetzel and James Piermarini, member and chair of the Energy Committee, gave convincing arguments, as did fellow member Adin Maynard, in favor of an array with a full canopy. The canopy can be reduced in the future if that becomes the preferred configuration. If the grants are secured there will be no need to worry about a time to payback of the town’s investment because the grants slash the project’s costs. Maynard also said in the near future all new buildings will have solar arrays.

The need to act before the MVP grants expire drove the voting on a first motion to engage Solect for design services of up to $50,000. That motion passed unanimously.

The companion motion to co-submit a letter of intent with Solect for an application to National Grid, to secure an interconnection agreement, also passed unanimously. Energy Committee member Richard Guzowski voiced his approval.

Guzowski said, “I motion to adjourn one of the most important meetings we’ve ever held.”

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