The City Council approved the 20-year lease on Tuesday.

PITTSFIELD, Mass — The City Council agreed to sign a lease with solar developer Ameresco to build a solar array at the city's capped landfill in Downing Industrial Park.

 

The company is planning to construct a 2.2 megawatt array and the city would buy the electricity at a discounted rate.

 

Not only would the city receive a better rate on the electricity, the company would pay about $45,000 annually in personal property tax.

 

The company will receive the Solar Renewable Energy Certificates offered by the state. The net metering program gives the solar company a benefit for kilowatts of electricity that are sold back to the grid. 

 

Each utility company is required to purchase a certain percentage of its power from renewable sources but instead of forcing the companies to install solar, the SRECs are sold on the market and utilities can buy them to reach their target percentage.

 

"It is anticipated Amaresco will generation north of 3.8 million kilowatt hours per year," said Beth Greenblatt of Beacon Integrated Solutions, who consulted on the project.

 

Ameresco will receive the state benefits, which the company can then sell at market. There is no particular value assigned to the SRECs but rather, the value is determined by supply and demand.

 

The City Council approved the lease agreements with the solar company on Tuesday, only after being assured there are clauses written in should the project fall through.

 

"What is our contingency if the project doesn't get built?" asked Ward 5 Councilor Jonathan Lothrop, who has seen a number of solar projects proposed but never completed.

 

"There are fallback provisions if it doesn't get built," responded City Solicitor Kathleen Degnan, who added the last solar project failed because the company didn't have financing in place while Ameresco does.

 

The city sought an array from SunEdison in 2010 at the industrial park but that deal fell through. The company and the city never came to terms on an agreement for that project.

 

The company will be working with Eversource on connection agreements to link the array to the grid.