Four Potential Solar Sites Named
Eryn Dion
News Staff Writer
HUBBARDSTON A recent survey conducted by Places Associates Inc. identified four potential locations around town suitable for a municipal solar array, though the project is likely still years in the making.
Town Administrator Anita Scheipers presented the results of the survey to the Board of Selectmen this week, listing the locations in order from most desirable to least desirable.
The local Highway Department, located on Route 68, was named the top-rated site for the solar panels according to the survey, which took inventory of and evaluated town-owned land and buildings. Next was Hubbardston Center School, which would see the panels fixed to the roof of the building due to space limitations. The town’s sand pit on Pitcherville Road was also listed as a potential site, along with Mt. Jefferson, although Ms. Scheipers was quick to denounce the last option.
“Because of land conservation issues there, we determined it probably would not work,” she told selectmen.
Ms. Scheipers said she will bring the survey back for further discussion at a later meeting, but wanted to present selectmen with the results as soon as the report was available.
Selectmen voted in October to spend $800 out of their expense account to fund the survey, and the first phase of the project is expected to cost about $5,000 total.
With three privately-owned solar farms already operating in town and indirectly benefiting taxpayers, Planning Board chairman Vincent Ritchie brought the possibility of building an array on town-owned property to selectmen last year, explaining that the farm would provide a more direct gain for taxpayers.
The arrays are usually constructed and developed by outside companies, and there are groups in the area that will install panels on private and public buildings at no cost to the owner.
Municipal solar farms have begun to take hold across the state over the last several years as towns and cities look to repurpose land that have outlived their use. The town of Harwich last year flipped the switch on a 4.4-megawatt facility built on a former landfill that is projected to save taxpayers over $300,000 annually.
Our old town dump would be a great area for this type of use. One would think the gifted ones at our TMLWP would have done it by now. I guess with all the money in a single wind turbine we as a town are stuck with just letting the fat cats make cheaper power for us. The roof at gansett could help the school get solar power instead of the 30 cent per kilowatt from the wind turbine out back. Do we as a town get the grants we should or does the TMLWP get all the grants?
ReplyDeleteTempleton is in need of grants for the schools power use and solar would be the perfect fit. Do we have the people in place who would try for these grants? Is it time for a Energy Resource Committee in Templeton?
global warming is one of the, if not the biggest frauds ever served up to the American people. there are those that want us to be a third world country, and this fraud is one of them.. to bankrupt us in any way.. the country has been "cooling" again for the last 10 years!!!! all these solar fields are as must of a fraud as our wind mill!!!!
ReplyDeletePeople need to think about the tree cutting to make the areas for the solar panels. To not use old dumps, sand banks , highway median areas for this is a crime. With less trees it will counter any benefit from this energy to global warming issue. The panels give off heat and when the summer heats up they will also. The panels shed heat to the neighbors who were not told about the heat increases in the areas of solar panels.
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ReplyDeleteOur government appears to be just a front for big corporations. Back in the early sixties it is believed the big oil companies and mining companies wished for a way to get at all the resources under the arctic ice, now this seems possible. Weather manipulation using chemtrails is documented well at Clifford Carnicom's site so there may be much more to this global warming story than meets the eye. It is reported that the ice lost in the Northern Hemisphere is now in the Antarctic as that ice has increased. It's all one big experiment.
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