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The Board of Selectmen (BOS) last night approved a solar panel energy contract for two separate systems, one at Ecology Park, the other on land adjacent to the landfill, specifically the town’s Tabor property. Both may well save the town $12 million over the next 20 years. The program is expected to be fully on line a year from now.
First Selectman Jamie Cosgrove told the Eagle after the meeting that ultimately the taxpayer will benefit because “by the town saving a half million dollars a year, that is a half million dollars we won’t be having to tax for.”
Marcia Chambers Photo
L-R: Miles Hovis and Paul Michaud.
Attorney Paul R. Michaud of the law firm of Murtha Cullina LLP, represented the town but his firm is paid for its services by the company that won the contract. Michaud chairs the law firm’s Renewable Energy Practice Group, and he addressed the BOS at a special meeting held at fire headquarters.
With Permission
Michaud worked with Town Attorney Bill Aniskovich, Cosgrove and other town employees on the initial project which centered on about three to four acres of sun-drenched land at Ecology Park. Click here to read the story. However, further discussions and a walk through the area created the opportunity for a second energy system, one that is larger, a square-shaped system (pictured here) that will sit on the town’s well-known Tabor property, not on the landfill itself.
Cosgrove said Michaud had significant expertise in this area and he provided the Request for Proposals (RFP) that drew companies to the Branford project, he said. Michaud s also a registered lobbyist.
Michaud Explains Process
Michaud told the BOS that he sent 70 Request for Proposals (RFP’s) to solar companies throughout the nation and 13 responded.
“We vetted them very carefully,” he said, ultimately selecting SolarCity, a national company whose main offices are in California. The company has offices in Massachusetts as well. Michaud said SolarCity was the strongest contender, based on its “technical and financial capacities.” SolarCity is America’s largest solar power provider.
Miles Hovis, SolarCity’s senior manager for project development, also addressed the BOS. He told the board that his company has over 1,700 municipal projects nationwide and that under the contract Branford stays with its utility company, Eversource, while achieving solar benefits from the town’s 10 major energy drivers.
We asked Cosgrove after the meeting to describe the town’s 10 major energy drivers. First on his list was the sewer treatment plant, “which is a huge driver,” he said. Other departments included the police department, the schools and other 24-hour facilities. “We will have up to 10 municipal meters that can use that credit,” he explained.
Marcia Chambers Photo
Asked by Third Selectman Bruce Storm how the contract came about, Michaud said, “We approached the town. We do the RFP, the interviews and then we bring in the contract to the town.”
Under the contract, the base project is for 1 megawatt (MW) with expansion capability to add 2 megawatts more. The RFP consultant, meaning the Murtha law firm, is paid 50 percent up front, about $75,000. It could go higher, to $225,000 depending upon how many megawatts are ultimately used. The funds for the Murtha law firm consultant come from the company, not the town, but the law firm’s fees were likely part of SolarCity’s bid price.
Solid Waste Management Commission Not Consulted
Not everyone in the room was happy about the process.
Marcia Chambers Photo
Paul Muniz, (pictured standing) chair of the Solid Waste Management Commission, (SWMC) attended the 35-minute meeting which drew few people. For decades the SWMC has overseen the town landfill and presided over its closure.
Muniz said he was speaking as a private citizen and not as chair of the commission because the commission “was never consulted in this matter.” He explained the commission had looked into a solar panel project two or three years ago, but was unable to follow through because “we lost a staff person.”
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In 2012, the BOS gave permission to Mario Ricozzi, then the chair of the SWMC, to investigate the possibility of putting solar panels on top of the town’s landfill when it is eventually closed.(See map). He said North Haven was undertaking a similar “bright field” project with their landfill. Ricozzi said the town would continue to own the property but would lease it to a power company that would install the solar panels to produce electricity. One of the current parcels sits atop the landfill.
Muniz told the BOS that while he applauded the idea of the project, he was disappointed that the commission was cut out of the process.
Then he raised the issue of whether Michaud and his law firm could actually represent the best interests of the town when the company was paying the law firm’s consultant fees and both Michaud and SolarCity are essentially repeat players on the solar canvas elsewhere.
In a subsequent interview, Muniz told the Eagle that the “due diligence that the town did before hiring Murtha was never discussed; no other organizations were likely to have been approached to determine if Murtha’s offer was appropriately priced.”
He said he sent a long e‑mail last month to Cosgrove on behalf of the commission seeking information which was not answered. He did, however, receive an e‑mail from Aniskovich, the town attorney, he said in an interview after the meeting.
“Aniskovich instead asked me to point out provisions in Town Code or Charter that would give SWMC approval authority over any agreements to use the former landfill.” Aniskovich did not attend the BOS meeting to explain the BOS’s prior 2012 decision engaging the SWMC in a solar panel project or his law firm’s role in the current project or why the SWMC was ignored when it came to one of the properties.
After Muniz spoke at the meeting, Michaud observed that had the town decided not to go forward after his firm did all the preparatory work, “we would have gotten zero.”
Cosgrove, who was enthusiastic about the solar project, explained to Muniz that an opportunity arose and he took it. He also noted the Tabor property as part of the solar plan, but gave no details about why the town had decided to use the Tabor property. Maps later confirmed where the second solar system is located.
“I had meetings with town staff. With the town engineer, the solid waste manager and the finance director. All were directly involved with the SolarCity project. The town had looked into it and it had not materialized; there was an opportunity here. These are people (from this law firm) who are the experts in the field. They are familiar with doing the analysis and making a rock-solid recommendation to the town. Murtha is here tonight not necessarily representing SolarCity; they are here representing the town of Branford and are acting in the best interests of the town of Branford and bringing us this potential long term savings,” Cosgrove said.
Town Engineer Janice Plaziak has said in the past that some years ago the SWMC had planned to place a solar array on the landfill. Former First Selectman Unk DaRos also looked at the adjacent Tabor property for renewable energy, including solar, wind and geothermal energy, she said. DaRos first raised the solar panel idea in 2008 when he sought to place the public works building on 6 acres of the adjacent Tabor land and put solar panels atop it. Public opposition killed the public works project.
Rep. Reed Approves SolarCity Choice
State Rep. Lonnie Reed (D‑Branford), who co-chairs the legislature’s Energy & Technology Committee, said she was encouraged that SolarCity has been chosen “to energize Branford’s Ecology Park and the nearby landfill.”
“With so many landfills closing, we on the Energy & Technology Committee crafted legislation to encourage the development of solar energy fields on those sites. Companies like SolarCity responded by creating attractive “no money down” leasing agreements to sign up municipalities.
“SolarCity is on the cutting edge of solar energy deployment. The driving force behind the company is Elon Musk, the innovator who made Tesla Motors, the electric vehicle company, a success.”
Reed said the next big challenge is no sun days.
“Musk is now working on an affordable, effective battery system to stockpile and store solar and wind energy for use on sunless, windless days. When that happens, it will be an electric utility game changer. This is a promising partnership. I have met with several of the key players and am eager to help fast-track the Ecology Park installation as quickly as possible.”
In the end the BOS voted unanimously to approve the project.
Once awarded a bid, SolarCity has to produce the project within a year. Cosgrove told the Eagle that SolarCity will need approval from the town’s land use commission. He did not mention the Representative Town Meeting (RTM) but the RTM may have authority over the uses of all town property.
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I'm very pleased to see the Town finally moving forward with the installation of renewal energy generation capacity on this site. The savings to Branford residents from this project, and hopefully others to follow, will continue for years. It also has the important effect of reducing Branford's ongoing contribution to the carbon dioxide generated by burning oil and gas that has already led to more than a one-foot rise in sea level since 1900 and is predicted to cause a further two- to three-foot rise by 2100.
Given that about a third of the location indicated for the panel array on the Tabor property flooded during both Hurricane Irene and Storm Sandy, I hope that the design phase of the project will have the flexibility to shift the location and configuration of the solar panel array to the higher ground just to the east.
Branford will have other opportunities to reduce its ongoing operating costs and greenhouse gas production as it builds and/or renovates to provide a modern Senior Center, a permanent home for the Public Works Department, and schools for the coming century. I hope that the Town will design to the highest energy-efficiency standards and incorporate a variety of renewable energy options as these projects proceed, as was done with the Fire Headquarters building that opened in 2012.