Town Board assesses Usource’s Community Solar presentation

AMENIA — Starting at 7 p.m., the Town Board opened its meeting on Thursday, Feb. 4, to a presentation by the company Usource, during which time Town Board members were invited to explore the potential benefits of the Community Solar program.

Identifying himself as an energy advisor with Usource, Jeff Baxter spoke of Community Solar and some of its possible benefits. Joining him for the presentation, Baxter introduced his friend and colleague Steve Birndorf, who he said has more than a decade of experience as a solar executive developing, financing and advising projects for municipalities, school districts and commercial and industrial organizations. Birndorf said he recently came to Usource as an advisor “sitting on your side of the table,” which he believes gives him a unique perspective in thinking about projects, how they get built, what the benefits and risks are and how to quantify those risks.

Birndorf said Community Solar refers to a New York State program run by New York State Energy Research & Development (NYSERDA) and NY-Sun that dovetails with the legislation and regulation enacted by the state to “achieve very aggressive” renewable portfolio standard (RPS) goals. He explained these RPS goals mandate carbon-free energy and promote the development of renewable assets like solar, wind and hydro power. Birndorf said developers through this program capital are attracted to energy projects and work to build solar arrays off-site. No solar panels would be on town land or property and there would be no requirements for panels on town buildings.

Effectively through this financial investment, Birndorf said clean electrons would be added to solar grids. The town would subscribe to a particular array built by a particular developer and receive energy bill credits. Typical savings would be around 10% of the town’s energy bill, and the risks would be controlled and mitigated.

“It’s one of these programs that sounds almost too good to be true,” Birndorf said. “You sign up, you enable solar renewable energy and you save about 10%.”

Describing Community Solar as a well-regulated, well-run program, Birndorf said that in New York State, they’re anticipating over the next five to 10 years about $6 billion of investment from outside capital for such projects.

Councilwoman Vicki Doyle noted that Amenia residents would likely want to know whether they can do this at their own homes or if it would be just for the town as a municipality. Birndorf said he believed the board should look at it through the lens of how Community Solar can help the town of Amenia, rather than individuals. However, as part of the request for proposals (RFP) process, should the town choose to move forward, he said it can tell the developers if it’s interested in residential subscribers and to eventually develop such a plan.

Among Community Solar’s benefits, Birndorf said there would be no need for roof or land space and no up-front or out-of-pocket costs. Additionally, the town’s energy bills would be reduced and solar usage in the state would increase.

Birndorf said Usource would do the “heavy lifting” and work with the town as its advisor. Representing Amenia in the marketplace, he said Usource would go out and work with its pool of developers; the town would tell Usource who it wants to work with. Usource would then solicit proposals and discuss the town’s energy usage and needs, after which time it would receive and evaluate offers, in terms of certainty of credit delivery as well as construction competencies, interconnection issues and issues concerning financing, tax equity and managing downside risk. He said it typically takes four to eight weeks to tie up the process.

Birndorf said Usource would get paid on a contingent basis by the winning developer. Charging the typical industry standards of 4 to 5 cents a watt, he said the company would put out a transparent fee.

“More importantly, we’re independent,” Birndof said. “We bring you bids, we help evaluate them and you guys choose to move forward or not, so you have complete control. There’s no requirement or obligation to move forward under any condition — we simply bring the offers.”

After the Usource representatives fielded the board’s queries, town Supervisor Victoria Perotti said, “You’ve given us a lot to think about and we’ll be studying what you presented and decide if we want to make this change.”