New Haven Independent
It's Your Town. Read All About It.
The city is working with a clean energy company to install a solar canopy on the Bowen Field parking lot — a project that has renewed neighbors’ calls to address noise, litter, and partying in the area.
Plans for a solar carport were discussed during Tuesday’s meeting of the Whalley, Edgewood, and Beaver Hills Community Management Team (WEBCMT) at 332 Whalley Ave., the location of a local police substation.
In the last year, the city has seen new solar arrays pop up on a public landfill and two schools. Both were installed by solar developer Greenskies Clean Energy, which the city also chose for the Bowen Field project.
A canopy at 175 Crescent St. would generate an estimated 852,900 kilowatt-hours of electricity, powering more than 80 homes for a year, according to Greenskies’ site plan.
In addition to the Bowen Field project, Ryan Linares, a vice president at Greenskies, said the company is working to install new solar canopies on the parking lots at the Alling Memorial Golf Course, East Shore Park, Clemente Leadership Academy, and Hill Regional Career High School.
All of these solar developments have been led by Steve Winter, executive director of the city’s Office of Climate and Sustainability and a state representative for parts of New Haven and Hamden.
On Tuesday, Winter presented the Bowen Field project to attendees of the evening’s WEBCMT meeting.
For this project, Winter said the city is leasing the Bowen Field parking lot to Greenskies. The company will pay around $34,000 to the city annually, though rent will vary depending on the ultimate size of the solar array.
In exchange, Greenskies can sell the power they generate to United Illuminating (UI), which may then deploy the electricity on their grid. Greenskies would own all of the solar equipment and be responsible for maintaining it. The company would also fund the planting of new trees to replace the 11 that will be cut down for the installation of a solar canopy.
Greenskies and the city have already agreed to a lease for Bowen Field, said Linares. The company’s next step is soliciting approvals from the city’s planning and zoning departments. He estimates that it will take another eight months before installation can begin.
Amid the excitement for a new solar canopy, neighbors raised their existing concerns with the Bowen Field parking lot.
“There is ongoing partying at the parking lot near from Hillhouse [High School],” said Nan Bartow, a lead volunteer for Friends of Beaver Pond Park. “Some people that are partying are responsible, but others are not. They leave litter.”
“A lot of [the partying] happens during the daytime,” said Rebecca Cramer, chair of the WEBCMT. Addressing the issue is critical because children play on Bowen Field, she said.
Beaver Hills Alder Gary Hogan, whose ward stops a few feet short of Bowen Field, agreed that the parking lot attracts revelers. While one neighbor suggested locking the gates to keep people out, Hogan said the field hosts events through the late evening, so the parking lots needs to be accessible at night.
Cramer suggested a meeting with community leaders and city staff, including officers from the New Haven Police Department, to find solutions to the lot’s noise and litter problems.
In the end, concerns about the parking lot did not lead neighbors to oppose the solar array.
“I don’t think the parking canopy will have a big impact on whether people decide to go and hang out there,” Winter told the Independent. One reason is because lights will be installed on the underside of the panels, preserving brightness and visibility in the area.
Even so, Winter said he and Linares are committed to being good stewards of the property and are eager to work with the city on addressing the lot’s ongoing issues.
5 Comments
It is absolutely wild that the partying in the parking lot is allowed. It is a SCHOOL parking lot and I see people drinking and partying in the lot from sun up to late in the night. I am talking about coolers of booze, camping chairs, canopies, music, and food. The city and the PD have known about it for years and have done nothing. Whenever they are asked about it, the parks say it is a PD problem and the PD says its a BOE problem and so on and so on. I am not against the solar panels but giving the partiers shade and rain cover is only going to increase the problem.
Also: The plan for this solar array is in its last stages and it is only now that they have come to the community to talk about it and get “approval” Instead of being able to fully hear the community concerns about lighting, tree removal from the park, and impacts on use we have to spend our time reminding the city that it is a parking lot where lots of illegal activity happens on SCHOOL PROPERTY with impunity.
FYI here is an article from almost a decade ago about an overdose that happened in the lot where other revelers had this to say “You have to look out for your fellow man,” said one of the men in the lawn chairs. “But I’m not here to look out. I’m here to enjoy myself.”
All of the men sitting in the lot said they did not become aware of the overdose until police arrived. https://www.newhavenindependent.org/2016/06/23/heroin_overdose/
They’ll have lights to part with; touching. It’s laughable that these solar panels will power 80 homes. Which homes? Oh right, they’ll sell the power to the grid giant UI who will not lower the rates one iota for anybody. The same can be said for the boondoggle of Revolution Wind which is supposed to power a couple hundred thousand homes in CT and RI. lol. No homes have been identified and one presumes it is the same pitch as Greenskies. So the power they generate will disappear into the black hole of the grid. Is there any accountability for these numbers or do the zealots just pull this out as a WAG?
At least the city will be collecting rent of $34,000 a year. Even though I think it would be a smarter move for the city to buy the panels and just have like a service contract with Greenskies to maintain them. In the long run the city would make more than the 34,000 a year. I’m sure Greenskies will be making double or more of that rent from selling it to UI.
Notes, the phrase “80 homes” is shorthand for the amount of power this system produces. Saying the system will produce an average of 1,600 kilowatt-hours per month is meaningless to most people who are not electrical engineers.
Where the power will go physically will vary from moment to moment. Electrons don’t read contracts, they follow the path of least resistance.
More revenue, more solar, more shade, more attention at the parking lot, sounds like a win win win win. Thanks City of New Haven!
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