NORWAY — The Center for an Ecology Based Economy was granted permission Thursday to get cost estimates for designing a 2,500-panel solar farm behind the transfer station on Brown Street and connecting it to Central Maine Power’s electrical grid.
Scott Vlaun, director of center, presented plans to the Select Board on Thursday night. He said the process for building a solar farm started three years ago when the center participated in the SunShot Initiative competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office.
The center was awarded $20,000 in technical assistance for the project and began to examine the feasibility of a solar farm in Norway but shelved the project because of a limit on meters allowed in solar projects by the state.
That limit was recently upped through LD 1711, “An Act to Promote Solar Energy Projects and Distributed Generation Resources in Maine.”
According to Vlaun, the time for the project is right. Maine is experiencing a rush of developers interested in capitalizing on solar projects.
“There’s a gold rush into Maine,” he said. “Every solar company in the country is flocking into Maine, trying to buy and get access to land to access solar farms.”
Part of the process in finding a site for a farm was locating land that couldn’t be used for any other purpose. According to Vlaun, landfills are perfect.
“You can’t do anything else on them.” he said. “You can’t drive a piling on them, you can’t build on them, you can’t grow food on them. But you can put solar panels on them.”
He said the farm would produce enough power for 180 households.
Insource Renewables, a Maine-based solar installer, has expressed interest in setting up the panels and is interested in giving Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School students hands-on experience with the installation, Vlaun said.
Solar energy-centered jobs have the potential to be a major force in the economy in the future, he said.
“These are good jobs all the way through, not just installers,” Vlaun said.
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