Former mill site being prepped for solar array

WOONSOCKET – The city’s list of solar energy developments appears to be growing again with some new proposal approvals and site work on those already completing city review.

Some of that activity could be found on Fairmount Street last week where a small industrial building surviving the June 7, 2011 Alice Mill fire has been razed in advance of the installation of a 1 megawatt solar panel array at site.

Kevin Proft, Woonsocket city planner, said the owner of the mill site, Mizner Holdings LLC, won planning board approval to divide the 7.5 acre parcel into two separate lots along Fairmount Street, one to the north and one to the south. The proposed solar array, also granted a city zoning board special permit approval, would be located on the northern lot along River Street and the Blackstone River.

The Durham School Service bus depot and the Alice Mill’s administrative office building is located on the other parcel running up to the Fairmount Street Bridge and is not included in the current solar development plan, according to Proft.

The historic Jules Dersurmont Mill across the street at 84 Fairmount St., owned by The Plastics Group of America, already has a roof-top solar array on a section of the building’s roof that was installed as part of the company’s ongoing improvement and restoration of that mill structure.

And over at 235 Singleton St., the

Brickle Group has completed the installation of a 250,000 kilowatt solar array, the city’s first ground-based solar development, to help power the company’s local manufacturing operations, according to Proft.

Across the city at Park East Drive, another ground-based 1 megawatt solar array was granted a zoning

board special use permit and planning board design review committee approval as a new development project, according to Proft. The proposed array would be in addition to the solar power installation the T.E.A.M Inc., manufac

turing company, also on Park East Drive in the industrial park, installed on the roof of its plant to generate 218,000 kilowatt hours of electricity for energy credits, according to Proft.

If all of the projects go online, Proft said they will generate more than 2.24 megawatt hours of solar power generation within the city’s de

veloped properties, some for commercial sales and some for energy use credits by local manufacturing operations.

“So there is some activity in the area of solar power whether that is for company net metering or commercial solar development,” he said.