The Utilities Committee met on April 2 and discussed the potential of a solar farm to be located at the Auburn Road landfill site.
A plan was was to be discussed at the meeting, but was postponed due to the fact that none of the presenters attended the meeting.
Instead, the utilities group got an update from Director of Engineering and Environmental Services, John Trottier, who recently took part in a walkthrough of the landfill site.
“I gave a debrief about what I know about the site and the complications somebody else had putting solar out there about five or six years ago,” Trottier explained. “Anything we do out there would need to get the EPA and NH DES [Department of Environmental Services] to buy into it. It’s not a slam dunk, we’ll need to get a permit to get going on it.”
The landfill is a Superfund site, requiring EPA approval for a solar farm. Getting enough arrays to the site for profitability while covering the cost of running lines out to the property was cited as another possible limiting factor for the project.
“How involved has the EPA regional office been?” asked member, Ann Fenn.
Trottier was not entirely sure, but he was in contact with EPA officials to keep track of how their controls would impact the reuse of the landfill.
“I think anytime we get into a partnership with any developer, we’re going to make sure they have that expertise of working with the EPA,” said Chair, Lynn Wiles, who seemed confident that the permitting process would not be a problem.
He asked Trottier to keep dialogue open with the local EPA and DES offices. Currently, there has been nothing presented on the farm.
Energy subcommittee member, Mike Speltz, updated the group on the progress of an application to receive federal funds through the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program.
“The town was offered to submit a grant for $75,000 under the Inflation Reduction Act,” said Speltz. “We elected to apply for basically a voucher that we can use to create an energy strategy for our town.”
There had been discussion over whether it would be feasible to install solar panels on either town-owned land or on top of town-owned buildings following the Auburn Road project. He expected the Block Grant application to go through after getting word it had been accepted and wanted to use that money to fund any future feasibility study for solar power.
“Sometime this summer, the feds hope to hire a national engineering firm that will provide their services to all towns across the country like us that have decided they want to develop an energy strategy. When that happens, they will work with us to define a real scope of work,” said Speltz. “At least we know we’ll have $75,000 to work with.”
In a separate update from the energy subcommittee, it was reported that the Community Heating Oil Aggregation plan would likely not be able to move forward because there is no legislation from the state allowing for oil aggregation.