PARIS — Selectmen voted Monday night to table proposed fees for solar panels until they figure out how to calculate them fairly.
Code Enforcement Officer Kingston Brown said the town charges $20 for installing solar panels on commercial and residential projects, regardless of the number of panels or their size.
He said he’d like a fee per panel.
“This would be able to give us an opportunity to charge per module, per solar panel,” Brown said.
He proposed a cap of $6,000 for large-scale commercial projects.
Originally, Brown said smaller panels used by homeowners would be charged the same fee as larger panels used by solar farms and commercial projects.
Selectmen Chris Summers and Scott McElravy said that would be unfair.
“I’m trying to find a way of doing it that’s reasonable for both ends of the spectrum,” Summers said. A 12-by 18-inch panel is not the same value and should not be charged the same as a 2- by 4-foot panel, he said.
“It would make sense to create a situation where individual homeowners wouldn’t find it cost-prohibitive to use solar panels . . . but there should be something in place so that somebody coming in commercially isn’t priced out the same way,” McElravy said.
Summers recommended a fee based on energy use so large-scale commercial projects generating large amounts of power would pay more than homeowners who typically have 16 to 18 smaller panels.
“Wattage breaks it down to a point, and bases it strictly on the science of it,” he said.
Brown also suggested having two rates: $10 per panel for houses and $20 per panel for businesses.
Summers made a motion to table the issue for further study. It passed 5-0.
The board agreed that capitalizing on the growing trend of solar energy was in the town’s interest.
According to McElravy, solar energy is a growing industry, and many towns are being approached by large-scale commercial farm projects.
“One of the things to be aware of is the growing industry of solar farms,” he said. “It’s coming upon us quickly . . . lots of towns are being approached and lots of things are happening. I think that’s going to be a big wave.”
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