By Trace Salzbrenner — [email protected]
Efforts to install solar panels on the roof of the new middle school remain in flux, but the plug hasn’t been pulled on the idea, school officials said last week.
“Everyone wants this to happen,” K-8 School Committee Chair Andrew Herchek said at the January 21 meeting. But thanks to an engineering issue, he said, “It just became more complicated from the initial idea when the rubber hit the road.”
Last November, Light Board members publicly criticized school leaders of wasting time and money by delaying the project and not executing a site license. Town Manager Kerry Lafleur declared the solar project “officially on hold.”
Concord Municipal Light Plant officials had hoped to install rooftop panels atop the Ellen Garrison Building at Concord Middle School to offset much of the building’s energy use as part of their net-zero energy ambition.
Town Meeting voters approved funding for the panels and associated battery storage in 2023. Early plans also included parking canopy arrays.
The district worked with CMLP to plan the project, but CMLP canceled the initial bid process in late 2025 after no bidder met the needed criteria and remained in budget.
Herchek said the building’s membrane roof poses a technical challenge.
“Even though structurally redesigned for solar panels, you’re not bolting these in because it ruins the membrane,” he said, explaining that it would also void the roof’s warranty to do so.
Schools Superintendent Laurie Hunter and Herchek said the district is working closely with CMLP and plans a fuller discussion with CMLP Director Jason Bulger at the next committee meeting.
Bulger said in an interview with The Concord Bridge that CMLP is “definitely still interested in developing a solar project” at the middle school.
He said CMLP staff have been exploring different approaches to procurement and ownership of the panels, including leasing, third-party development, or outright purchase. Bulger said now there needs to be more discussion with the school administration about the best path forward.
“I feel like we’ve got open lines of communication,” Bulger said when asked if relationships have improved.
Said Hunter during the meeting, “I think we want to be sure we’re saying very clearly to the community [that] we are very engaged and interested in moving the project forward.”
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