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More Community Corner Partnership paves way for wind energy in Scituate
Not long after the first commercial-scale wind turbine on the East Coast debuted in Hull eight years ago, officials in nearby Scituate began discussing whether a similar project would be feasible in their town.
But Scituate, like most communities in Massachusetts, lacked an important advantage that Hull possessed: ownership of its electric grid through a municipal light company. After years of study and discussion, Scituate dropped the idea of building and operating a wind turbine on its own in favor of partnering with a private firm that would assume virtually all of the project’s financial risk. This past November, selectmen approved a contract with Woburn-based Solaya Energy LLC to build, finance and operate the 1.5 megawatt turbine on behalf of the town for at least 15 years.
The contract, known as a power purchase agreement, is the first of its kind involving a municipal wind-power project, according to state officials, and is expected to save Scituate an average of $300,000 a year in energy costs over the 15-year period. The upfront costs for the town, according to Scituate officials, are limited to about $9,000 in legal fees.
Paul Reidy, a former Scituate selectman who chairs the town’s Renewable Energy Committee, said it would have been unrealistic to ask residents to support the estimated $4.5 million cost of the project in an era of tight fiscal restraints.
In addition to the sizable financial obligation, owning the turbine would have demanded of Scituate officials a good deal of expertise in negotiating the renewable energy credit market, a means to help offset an alternative-energy project’s cost.
“We felt it was a better situation to make it somebody else’s responsibility, rather than own it ourselves and then find out that we’d bitten off more than we could chew,” Reidy said.
The turbine will be sited on municipal land next to the town’s sewer plant, which is expected to draw roughly half of the power that is generated. The surplus energy will be sold to National Grid as a means of offsetting other municipal power costs.
Al Bangert, Scituate’s public works director, said construction on the wind turbine could start as early as next summer, with the turbine going online about a year later.
Bangert compared Solaya’s role to that of an operator of a fleet of school buses or a commercial airline company.
“If you have people who fly a lot, you don’t want to own airplanes. You want to buy tickets for airlines at a reasonable rate,” Bangert said. “Solaya will be our fleet operator.”
The contract, Bangert said, assures that even in the unlikely event that electricity rates are no higher at the end of the 15-year period than they are now, Scituate would still be paying a lower rate than it pays today.
At the end of the 15-year-period, the town will have the option of extending the lease in five-year increments.
“Should [Solaya] ever put the unit up for sale, we would have right of first refusal,” Bangert said. “But we’re not coveting the thing.”
The Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust, according to spokeswoman Emily Dahl, hopes to make Scituate’s contract with Solaya available as a model for other communities.
For more information, contact Paul Reidy at (781) 545-5361.
More Community Corner Partnership paves way for wind energy in Scituate
Partnership paves way for wind energy in Scituate
Not long after the first commercial-scale wind turbine on the East Coast debuted in Hull eight years ago, officials in nearby Scituate began discussing whether a similar project would be feasible in their town.
But Scituate, like most communities in Massachusetts, lacked an important advantage that Hull possessed: ownership of its electric grid through a municipal light company. After years of study and discussion, Scituate dropped the idea of building and operating a wind turbine on its own in favor of partnering with a private firm that would assume virtually all of the project’s financial risk. This past November, selectmen approved a contract with Woburn-based Solaya Energy LLC to build, finance and operate the 1.5 megawatt turbine on behalf of the town for at least 15 years.
The contract, known as a power purchase agreement, is the first of its kind involving a municipal wind-power project, according to state officials, and is expected to save Scituate an average of $300,000 a year in energy costs over the 15-year period. The upfront costs for the town, according to Scituate officials, are limited to about $9,000 in legal fees.
Paul Reidy, a former Scituate selectman who chairs the town’s Renewable Energy Committee, said it would have been unrealistic to ask residents to support the estimated $4.5 million cost of the project in an era of tight fiscal restraints.
In addition to the sizable financial obligation, owning the turbine would have demanded of Scituate officials a good deal of expertise in negotiating the renewable energy credit market, a means to help offset an alternative-energy project’s cost.
“We felt it was a better situation to make it somebody else’s responsibility, rather than own it ourselves and then find out that we’d bitten off more than we could chew,” Reidy said.
The turbine will be sited on municipal land next to the town’s sewer plant, which is expected to draw roughly half of the power that is generated. The surplus energy will be sold to National Grid as a means of offsetting other municipal power costs.
Al Bangert, Scituate’s public works director, said construction on the wind turbine could start as early as next summer, with the turbine going online about a year later.
Bangert compared Solaya’s role to that of an operator of a fleet of school buses or a commercial airline company.
“If you have people who fly a lot, you don’t want to own airplanes. You want to buy tickets for airlines at a reasonable rate,” Bangert said. “Solaya will be our fleet operator.”
The contract, Bangert said, assures that even in the unlikely event that electricity rates are no higher at the end of the 15-year period than they are now, Scituate would still be paying a lower rate than it pays today.
At the end of the 15-year-period, the town will have the option of extending the lease in five-year increments.
“Should [Solaya] ever put the unit up for sale, we would have right of first refusal,” Bangert said. “But we’re not coveting the thing.”
The Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust, according to spokeswoman Emily Dahl, hopes to make Scituate’s contract with Solaya available as a model for other communities.
For more information, contact Paul Reidy at (781) 545-5361.
Written by MMA Associate Editor Mitch Evich
