Woodstock
Woodstock hopes to save $650,000 over the life of a 25-year net metering agreement with Norwich Solar Technologies that will cover the energy needs of the Woodstock Town Hall, Fire Department, Highway Department garage, and wastewater treatment plant, which Town Manager Phil Swanson said is the biggest energy user in town.
“That place is nothing but pumps and motors,” Swanson said on Friday.
Under the agreement, the town will save $13,000 in the first year, and its energy bill will increase by 1 percent every year; the savings were calculated on an assumption that electricity rates will continue to increase at the historical average of 3 percent a year.
In 2015, the Woodstock community vehemently opposed a proposed solar array on a 15-acre pasture next to the Taftsville Cemetery; the solar panels that will supply the energy in this agreement will be located on the rooftop of RSD Trucking on Old River Road in White River Junction.
“As a developer, we look for areas where we can install solar,” said Kevin Davis, Norwich Solar’s pro ject manager. “That rooftop was identified to us as someone who might be interested in a roof lease arrangement. We agreed to build the solar array, and then tried to find a customer, who in this case happens to be the town of Woodstock.”
Swanson was unsure whether Hartford or Woodstock would be credited for the solar power under municipal targets contained in the Regional Energy Plan that was approved by members of the Two Rivers-Ottauquechee Regional Commission earlier this year.
The 30-town area that makes up the Two Rivers-Ottauquechee region currently produces about 88,600 megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity from renewable sources, and the targets, which synch up with a statewide goal of achieving 90 percent renewables by 2050, call for that amount to be quadrupled, to 349,000 MWh.
Of that, about one in seven arrays — enough to produce 52,000 MWh — is expected to come from rooftop arrays.
Swanson said that, after 10 years of exploring solar agreements, the Norwich Solar deal, which required no out-of-pocket cost and no land, was the first one that fully met the town’s needs.
In Lebanon, DHMC is unveiling its first major solar project, which will be located on the rooftop of the hospital’s Heater Road facility, and provide about 10 percent of the energy needs of that building.
“We’re going to be seeing how this goes, and what it might lead to,” said Mike Barwell, a spokesman for the hospital.
Barwell said the hospital’s efforts to curb energy use will also benefit from a geothermal system that will provide heat to the new Jack Byrne Center for Palliative and Hospice Care.
An agreement between Norwich Solar and the Town of Hartford to build a solar array on the Wendell A. Barwood Arena has been threatened by an engineering study that shows the WABA roof cannot safely bear the weight of the solar panels, and a load of New England snow.
The early-December discovery derailed plans to build the array before a February deadline established by the Vermont Public Utility Commission.
Town officials tried to save the timeline by entering into a modified agreement, in which the solar firm would clear snow off the roof, pending a structural reinforcement project to be done after the facility closes in April.
But that plan was scuttled by the Hartford Fire Department, where officials determined that it would not comply with state safety regulations, Hartford Town Manager Leo Pullar told the Selectboard during a Dec. 7 meeting.
“If the individual they’re relying on to remove the snow doesn’t come in, and then the roof collapses during a hockey game,” said Pullar, the result would likely be catastrophic.
Selectman Dennis Brown said he’d rather err on the side of safety, according to CATV video of the meeting.
“I worry about the safety of the people who would be clearing the snow off,” he said. “That sounded risky to me. I think I’m actually relieved by this.”
Norwich Solar President Joel Stettenheim said the solar company has applied to the PUC to extend the February deadline established in the certificate of public good that sanctions the project.
“We think there’s a good chance the PUC is going to be persuaded that there have been systematic, diligent efforts to get this project done,” Stettenheim said.
If the PUC approves the extension, the reinforcement job will be done in April, with a plan to install the solar panels by early summer. The town will bear the cost of the work, but it will be deducted from the cost savings that would have otherwise been realized in the agreement.
Stettenheim said the firm is in the process of developing cost estimates, and hopes to hear a decision from the PUC on the extension application within the next two weeks.
Matt Hongoltz-Hetling can be reached at mhonghet@vnews.com or 603-727-3211.