Solar construction slows, but the towns continue to generate power

Feb. 15, 2021 | Sarah Heinonen
sarah@thereminder.com

WILBRAHAM/HAMPDEN – Many towns have seen a boom of solar array installations over the past decade and Wilbraham and Hampden have been no different. However, that trend may be slowing down, at least for the foreseeable future.

Wilbraham Planning Director John Pearsall told Reminder Publishing that there are no proposed solar projects in front of the Planning Board. Although a solar company has approached a landowner off of Tinkham Road about the possibility of a new project, Pearsall cautioned that nothing formal is in the works.

That doesn’t mean that there isn’t movement in the solar landscape of Wilbraham, though. Two large-scale, ground-mounted solar arrays that have been in the works for the past couple of years are scheduled to come online in 2021. The solar farm at 126V Beebe Rd., owned by Blue Wave Solar and the ZPT Energy Solutions project at 676 Tinkham Rd. have both received zoning approval and are currently working with the utility companies to be attached to the grid, Pearsall said.

These two arrays will bring the total number of solar fields in the town to five. One project, built on town-owned land near the former landfill, generates approximately one megawatt of power. Pearsall said it was designed to meet the electricity needs of the town. While not the largest installation, it is the only one not owned or leased by a private company.

Another solar project, from ASD Solar, was proposed for the property at 285 Three Rivers Rd. but eventually turned down by the Planning Board. Pearsall said that it  was “not a suitable site for the amount of solar panels they wanted to put on it.” Located in a neighborhood, he said the installation would have been “very visible” to the surrounding area. The Planning Board’s decision is currently undergoing the appeals process in land court in Boston.

In Hampden, aside from the Blue Wave Solar project, which crosses the Wilbraham town line onto Ames Rd., there are several  solar projects at different stages of development. For example, an array at the rear of Somers Road is tied up with the Department of Environmental Protection and the project on Thresher Road received a two-year extension due to impacts of COVID-19.

Similar to Wilbraham, however, there are no newly proposed projects, said Joanne Fiore of the Hampden Planning Board.

“It has slowed down from when solar first started exploding in town,” said Fiore.

Despite the end of a one-year solar moratorium in October 2019, Hampden hasn’t seen a resurgence of proposed projects. Fiore said it’s likely a combination of the pandemic-caused economic downturn and a new, more stringent 2019 solar bylaw.

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