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Two solar projects in Concord are expected to deliver power to the grid this summer — and their quick turnaround could be attributed to the utility company they worked with: Unitil.
Over the last two years, development has progressed rapidly on two five-megawatt solar arrays, one built over a closed landfill at Concord’s transfer station and the other on private land near West Portsmouth Street.
Solar arrays themselves can be installed fairly quickly, but the bulk of the work comes down to connecting the panels to the grid. Such connections are often a stumbling block for new power projects, but working with Unitil made a “critical difference,” according to a developer.
“Unitil was much more reasonable and timely throughout the study process,” Oliver Sandreuter, director of business development for Lodestar Energy, said in a statement. “We had to abandon multiple projects under development in Eversource, largely because Eversource lacked transparency and timeliness when studying them.”
Lodestar developed the five-megawatt solar farm near West Portsmouth Street on 30 acres owned by Brochu Nurseries.
A project at Hopkinton’s transfer station, for example, had to be abandoned because of connection difficulties. The town is partly served by both Unitil and Eversource.
Don Kreis, the state’s consumer advocate, said Eversource has historically been “sluggish when it comes to responding to interconnection requests.”
The difference between the two companies, he said, was that Eversource is older and larger while Unitil is more scrappy and forward-thinking.
“Unitil is an example of a competent, well-run, responsive utility, and Eversource is also competent and well-run, but I don’t think it perceives that speedy interconnection is necessarily in its best interest as a business,” Kreis said.
Construction on Lodestar’s project is almost finished, Sandreuter said, although it won’t be able to send power into the grid until Unitil completes upgrade work at a nearby substation, which is expected to happen by this summer.
The project at Concord’s transfer station is also expected to come online soon. The developer, Kearsarge Energy, received approval from the city last year to build around 11,000 panels on 17 acres of closed landfill, which is expected, on a sunny day, to power as many as 1,000 homes.
Beth Fenstermacher, the city’s director of special projects and strategic initiatives, said these two projects build on the solar farm established at the wastewater treatment plant on Hall Street. That one sits at a meager 136 panels with peak daily production at 60 kilowatts.
Fenstermacher said weight and ground disturbance restrictions limited what could be built at the site, but a solar farm turned out to be the perfect fit.
“That site is actually a great reuse, because there was nothing else we could do with this land,” she said. “We’ve actually created a tax-producing development on a closed landfill, which is a great use for that type of site.”
In 2021, legislators increased the net metering cap for municipalities from one megawatt to five megawatts, clearing a path for larger-scale solar farm constructions like the two emerging in Concord. A five-megawatt project has also been under construction in Warner, holding 12,000 panels on a gravel pit off I-89.
But New Hampshire lags behind on solar energy production, with solar accounting for only about 2% of the state’s energy. This is the lowest percentage out of all New England states, which average a production rate of 15%, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.
Rob Wener, state director for the advocacy group League of Conservation Voters, said the organization has been talking about these projects for a while and is excited to see them brought to fruition.
He’d also like to see the state go further in encouraging these kinds of projects.
“I think it’s certainly welcome that they pass the five megawatt expansion for municipalities and school districts,” Werner said. “But there’s so much more that we could do to help reduce energy costs and make things more efficient.”
David Brooks contributed to this report.
Emilia Wisniewski is a general assignment reporter that covers Franklin, Warner and Henniker. She is also the engagement editor. She can be reached at ewisniewski@cmonitor.com or (603) 369-3307 More by Emilia Wisniewski
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