WELLFLEET — The array of 2,400 solar panels on Wellfleet’s capped landfill, which was installed by the renewable energy company Ameresco more than a year ago in December 2019, is moving closer to grid connection. The project has been caught in a Mass. Land Court dispute since being built, but a new license agreement will allow Eversource to design and install two new poles to make that connection possible.
The select board approved the agreement by a unanimous vote on Tuesday, Jan. 26. “It’s a creative way to keep the project moving forward,” said Town Administrator Maria Broadbent. Eversource will now have the legal right to install the poles, said Broadbent, while the town awaits the Land Court decision.
Once the array is connected to the power grid, it will generate 1.2 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year, said Broadbent. In terms of carbon dioxide emissions, it would be the equivalent of taking 180 cars off the road, she said.
Dick Elkin, chair of the energy and climate action committee, said the array will annually produce about 140 percent of the energy needed for municipal buildings, including the police and fire stations, the DPW, and town hall. Broadbent said that 30 percent of the solar credits from the electricity produced will be purchased by the Nauset Regional High School. The remaining 70 percent will be credited to the town of Wellfleet, she said.
Geri Kanto, a director of development at Ameresco, said the final timeline for the project depends on both Eversource’s work queue and the Land Court process.
According to the energy and climate action committee website, the 2,400 photovoltaic panels would create $60,000 in net savings per year for the town through lease payments, reduced electricity costs, and payments in lieu of taxes. The town of Wellfleet and Ameresco signed a lease in November 2018, agreeing to rental payments of $30,000 per year beginning on the commercial operation date.
The solar array coming online, said select board member Helen Miranda Wilson, “should have happened yesterday.” The detour to Land Court has cost the town money, said Wilson. The solar panels are “just sitting there being distressed by time,” she said.
The net savings to the town, said Elkin, could be much less than the $60,000 in the original agreement because of the delays. Elkin said the initial delays were caused by the “extraordinary incompetence” of the previous town clerk and the planning board. The permitting process that should have taken a maximum of 12 months took 6 months longer, he said. The combination of delays — the planning board, the Land Court, and then Covid — have set the project back by two and a half years, Elkin said.
In 1987, the town took possession of the driveway to the landfill by eminent domain. According to Justice Michael Vhay of the Land Court, the town’s order of taking at the time failed to provide “a description of the land so taken,” apart from a handwritten notation in the margins. In September of last year, the court ordered Wellfleet to “show cause in writing by Oct. 15, 2020 as to why its alleged taking of Lot 3 is valid.” On Oct. 14, town counsel submitted a response to the order and requested a new title for the property in the name of the town of Wellfleet. Broadbent said the town is still waiting for the court’s decision.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said Elkin of the solar array. “On paper, it’s much better than we hoped.”
