PITTSFIELD >> A Framingham firm is the frontrunner to build the city's first municipal solar power project, aimed at saving taxpayers money.
Pittsfield officials have started negotiating with Ameresco a long-term solar lease and power/net metering purchase agreement. The global alternative energy company has offered to install a solar array of up to 2.9 megawatts of generating capacity that provide more than 3.86 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually.
City officials reviewed eight proposals since November and determined Ameresco was the best option to placing thousands of solar panels at the former city landfill at the end of Downing Parkway.
"The evaluation committee has considered Ameresco's qualifications with respect to solar photovoltaic installations and direct experience working on capped landfills, in addition to the favorable economics of their price offerings," said James McGrath, Pittsfield's parks and open space manager.
"Ameresco has a pretty healthy portfolio of landfill projects," added project consultant Beth Greenblatt, managing director of Beacon Integrated Services.
Pittsfield is trying to hammer out a power purchase and lease agreements with Ameresco that would require City Council approval.
The renewable energy company has initially offered a 20-year fixed price of nearly 7 cents per kilowatt hour, annually. The rate takes into account Ameresco's tax bill with the city for developing several acres of the 44-acre former city dump, which the company would lease from the city.
The savings come in the form of net metering, credit from the utility for unused electricity generated by the solar panels and Solar Renewable Energy Certificates. Massachusetts allows SREC production of electricity for up to 10 years in an effort to reach the state's goal to create 1,600 megawatts of solar capacity by 2020.
This is Pittsfield's second attempt in nearly five years to convert the capped landfill into a solar energy facility; the original developer pulled out, unable to find interested investors.
In 2010, Missouri-based SunEdison backed away as the chosen firm to build a $10 million, 8,000-panel project atop the site, which was expected to shave an estimated $2 million off the city's Western Massachusetts Electric Co. bills over a 20-year period. City officials believe SunEdison felt the return on their investment wasn't worth installing the 2-megawatt facility.
One potential stumbling block this time around could be hooking up the planned solar array to the Eversource grid.
An estimated $1.45 million in interconnection fees forced Lee and Lenox to drop a total of three individual municipal solar energy projects on town land that would have to tie in with Eversource. The two communities are now exploring a single, larger solar array that could have an interconnection fee of $500,000. Lenox is still pursuing a municipal solar array for its capped landfill, as that site would link to National Grid, which has more favorable interconnection fees, according to town officials.
Pittsfield is hoping to minimize interconnection costs, given that Eversource has a transmission running through the landfill site.
"We will have several discussions [with Eversource] on having access to a distribution line below that transmission line," Greenblatt said.
Interconnection fees pay for the cost of system modifications necessary to safely hook up the project to the grid, utility officials have said.
Contact Dick Lindsay at 413-496-6233.