City Council pressing on solar farm

Mayor admits she still has lots of ‘questions’ and that the process needs more vetting

WOONSOCKET — The City Council’s renewable energy subcommittee is supporting a North Kingstown developer’s plan to build a network of solar farms it says could generate $23 million in revenue for the city over 25 years.

Council Vice President Jon Brien, chairman of the subcommittee, said members voted on Feb. 8 to support an offer from Green Development LLC. The company was among several that tendered offers for renewable energy projects after Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt’s administration, on the council’s instructions, issued a public request for proposals (RFP) about six months ago.

The subcommittee’s vote came on the recommendation of the Narragansett Bay Commission, which provided free consulting services to the council to help members evaluate the offers. Based in East Providence, NBC, the state’s largest wastewater treatment agency, generates about two thirds of its own energy needs with wind turbines and solar farms, and provides free consulting services to municipalities exploring the use of such projects to cut power costs.

The subcommittee’s game plan is to ask the full council to support a resolution instructing Baldelli-Hunt to take the next step in the procurement process by entering into formal contract negotiations with Green Development. But first, Brien said, the subcommittee, including Councilors James Cournoyer and John F. Ward, is calling for a briefing on the proposal that includes Public Works Director Steve D’Agostino, City Engineer John Pratt and all seven councilors.

To a substantial extent, Brien said, Pratt and D’Agostino have already been involved in the

procurement process. During the vetting process, he said, Pratt drafted followup questions for a short list of four vendors who gave half-hour rpresentations on their proposals.

Brien said he’d be hard pressed to think of a reason for fthe administration to withhold its support for the initiative.

“There is no good reason,” he said. “You can’t come up with a reason that says we shouldn’t be in the business of generating somewhere north of $800,000 per year for 25 years through renewable energy. This is clean, it’s not unsightly because it will be out of the way from clear lines of vision. There is no smell. This is just a no-brainer when it comes down to it.”

Moreover, Brien says green energy is “the perfect antidote” to the council’s 2017 decision to forsake an $18 million water sales contract with Invenergy Thermal Development, the company vying to build a sprawling, gas-fired cogeneration plant on a tract of pristine woodland in Burrillville. Rather than sell water to a company that’s rankling environmentalists with concerns about habitat loss and pollution, Brien said, the city can replicate a comparable economic result by harnessing the power of the sun.

“I think that’s the better way to go,” he said.

But Baldelli-Hunt isn’t buying Brien’s pitch – at least not yet. She said she just received detailed information about the bids submitted by all four suitors for the contract a few days ago and needs more time to evaluate them before deciding which, if any, is worthy of pursuing.

“I’m going to have a lot of questions, and I’m sure the public works director is going to have a lot of questions,

too,” said the mayor. “This is a major undertaking that needs to be completely vetted so we are perfectly clear as to whatever project we go with falls within the savings that they are anticipating and the time frame they’re promising to do it in...We need to completely vet this so we are sure that ultimately, in the end, we are comfortable with the company we choose.”

Brien said Green Development would build several arrays of solar panels on distinct parcels within the city, including land adjacent to the new water treatment plant off Jillson Avenue. It’s unclear how much would be available, but the city acquired 20 acres for the project several years ago. Brien says the idea is to commit a portion of whatever isn’t needed for the plant to the construction of solar panels.

Green Development’s plan calls for generating about 9 megawatts of electricity per year – enough to cover what the city uses for all its buildings. One solar farm on Jillson Avenue would be insufficient to achieve that, so additional sites would be needed.

The location of those sites would be a matter for negotiation with Green Development and the city, he said.

But Brien said Green Development and NBC’s consultants see the potential to generate about $23 million over 25 years by building the network of panels at sites that are potentially available. Only a portion of the proceeds would be derived from direct savings on electricity, however.

“You may not be able to generate it all, but you can buy it at considerable savings also,” he said. “You save dra-

matically on electricity costs while at the same time you’re also getting lease payments for having those facilities on city-owned land. Roughly this is worth $23 million for the life of a 25-year contract.”

Seven companies initially responded to the request for proposals last October. With help from NBC, the renewable energy subcommittee eventually whittled down the list to four, rejecting the others for failing to properly address the bid specifications.

In addition to Green Development’s, the offers considered by the subcommittee came from Kearsage Energy of Boston, Southern Sky Renewable Energy of RI, based in Warwick and Ameresco Solar Energy Solutions of Framingham, Mass.