Last week Michael Cucchiara and Dallas Manson, of Nexamp, gave a presentation to the Marlborough Town Board on a proposed lease agreement for a solar photovoltaic system to be constructed on 9 fenced in acres at the town landfill off of Bailey’s Gap Road. This will be the second project by the company as they are in the process of constructing a 2.7 megawatt community solar project off Milton Turnpike that has a PILOT [payment in lieu of taxes] agreement in place with the school, town and county.

Cucchiara said there are two components of the project that will bring revenue to the town.

“The lease revenue portion will bring the town $3,500 per megawatt, per year lease with a 1% escalator for the first five years and then a CPI look back for those additional years going out,” he said. “It has a 25 year initial term with two options that bring us out to 40 years should there be additional programs outside the initial 25 year agreement.”

Cucchiara said this equates to about $5,700 in lease revenue per year. He explained that this is a little lower, “because the amount of land at the landfill is limited. This is a 1.6 megawatt project that produces about 2 million kilowatt hours a year.”

Cucchiara said there is some potential for “up-sizing” of the project because the company may be able to utilize slightly larger panels. He said once his company and the town get into the site control agreement and have his civil engineers survey the property, there may be something the company missed in their satellite imagery that would allow for larger panels.

Cucchiara said he is confident in the current rate.

“Over 25 years this will represent $161,000 to the town just from the lease revenue,” he said.

Cucchiara said the second component of the arrangement is that the town would receive monetary credits to offset their utility bills at the town level [at an 18% discount] and residential accounts could receive a 10% discount off their bills.

Cucchiara estimated that Nexamp would deliver $52,717 in credits across the town’s accounts, with the purchase price of these credits at $43,228, providing and annual savings of $9,489. Assuming inflation, he said this would be about $203,000 in savings to the town over a 20 year period. He pointed out that this would not require any outlay of funds by the town.
Cucchiara said the arrangement is different from other solar projects.

“This is based on credits that we produce and get from our project and then apply to your bill and then you pay us at a discounted rate,” he said. “This is a version of net metering; in this case Nexamp puts energy out on the grid and for every kilowatt of energy that we put on we get credits given to Nexamp. The way we make money is delivering those credits to you that factors in a discount that helps you save money and helps us get paid for those credits.”

Supervisor Al Lanzetta said the town is very excited about this project.

“It’s been a long time coming, trying to get people involved and Nexamp came through and we appreciate it,” he said.

The board unanimously approved a resolution for a lease option agreement and ground lease for Nexamp’s system at the town landfill property. A public hearing is set for 7 p.m. on June 22. This action is subject to a permissive referendum.