Candlewood Mountain solar project suffers ‘huge setback’
NEW MILFORD — Companies planning to buy power from a proposed solar farm on Candlewood Mountain have indicated they’re canceling agreements to do so, according to a letter from a Massachusetts law firm.
Dan Casagrande, a lawyer representing the town and a group of residents opposed to the project called Rescue Candlewood Mountain, said the change marks “a huge setback for the project.”
“Obviously, if there’s no customers to sell electricity to, the entire viability of the project gets called into question,” said Casagrande, who works for Cramer & Anderson.
The Boston law firm, Keegan Werlin, wrote in a Nov. 13 letter to the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities that the companies had contacted Can
dlewood Solar with “written notice of termination of their respective PPAs,” or power purchase agreements, on Nov. 10.
The move came after Candlewood Solar didn’t notify the companies in writing ahead of a Nov. 7 due date regarding whether “it had satisfied the Critical Milestones,” one of which was gathering required permits, according to the letter.
Officials from Ameresco, Candlewood Solar’s Framingham, Mass., parent company, did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
The project would offer access of up to 20 megawatts of renewable energy as well as local work opportunities, among other benefits, according to Ameresco’s website. Rescue Candlewood Mountain has registered its opposition to the project over the years, pointing to the effect it would have on the area’s core forests and the home of species needing protection, among other reasons.
In October, a state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection analyst advised in a Natural Diversity Data Base determination “that the Project should not move forward,” citing concerns about how the undertaking would affect a threatened species. Though the species’ name was blocked out of the document, New Milford had previously submitted a petition to the department regarding the northern slimy salamander’s welfare.
In November, the state’s Council on Environmental Quality wrote to DEEP in support of the determination’s findings.
“CEQ calls on DEEP to uphold the integrity of the State’s Endangered Species Act as it applies to this location and stand behind the scientific determination of its staff, unless there is conclusive and overwhelming contrary evidence,” Executive Director Peter Hearn wrote in the letter to the department.
The project would need the rubber stamp from DEEP on a stormwater management plan in order to proceed — an endeavor that has resulted in more than one rejection from the department. The Connecticut Siting Council did give its OK on the possible project a few years ago.
“It’s just another in a series of significant setbacks which we think have been appropriately imposed on the project by these various agencies and entities because of the critically adverse effect that this is going to have on an important natural resource in New Milford,” Casagrande said.