This story by Corey McDonald first appeared in The Citizen on April 27.
Efforts to build community-based solar array on the town landfill have faltered after the company told the town it couldn’t garner enough membership among residents to continue to pursue the project.
The solar project will still get built out but the energy it generates will go primarily to private investors, who will still need to find buyers of the energy.
“Acorn Renewable Energy Co-op has reached a turning point with respect to its planned community solar array on the Hinesburg landfill,” Benjamin Marks, the president of Acorn, said in a letter to the town. “Unexpectedly, the biggest challenge we faced with this project has been finding enough participants in the (Vermont Electric Co-Op) territory to pay for project construction.”
Acorn, which serves residents in towns in Addison, Rutland, and Chittenden counties, offers shares in its solar projects to Vermont residents, and has completed similar projects in Bristol, Middlebury and Shoreham.
Along with Aegis Renewable Energy, the company was brought into town in 2019 to fulfill renewable energy goals laid out in Hinesburg’s master plan.
“Our vision for this when we started and brought it forth to the town was to have community solar,” Chuck Reiss, a member of the town’s energy committee, said. “A number of communities in the state have done that. It’s been successful elsewhere.”
The project hit a snag when it was discovered the landfill that the proposed solar panels would sit atop of was never procedurally capped. Several private residences near the property — including the town garage — have since had dangerous chemicals detected in their drinking water, and efforts to remediate are still underway.
But plans to buildout the 150kW solar array proceeded, nonetheless. Acorn had spent the past eight months marketing to residents to buy into its membership, who could then use the project’s net-metered credits toward their Vermont Electric Co-Op bills.
A contract with Aegis, the project’s builder, stipulated that the company sell off at least 75 percent of its shares to residents by Feb. 1 — which was then extended to April 20.
But the company fell short of its goal, selling only 60 percent of its shares. Of the people who subscribed, few were from Hinesburg, Reiss said.
“These investors were to be the ultimate owners of the project and the recipients of its electric bill credits,” Marks said in his letter to the town. “We have spent three times the budgeted advertising dollars compared to prior projects and the marketing effort has been twice as long, but we just haven’t been able to make the necessary sales, either locally in Hinesburg or in the broader, more diffuse, VEC service territory.”
Part of the agreement between Acorn and Aegis, Hinesburg Town Manager Todd Odit said, was that if Acorn were unable to complete the project, Aegis had the “right to purchase the project and do something different.”
“We are still supportive of the project,” said Michael Webb, a member of the town’s energy committee. “This is the last best chance to utilize this space.”
Nils Behn, the CEO of Aegis, said during a town selectboard meeting that they plan on building out the project but will partner with a private investor rather than sell to community members.
“It’s just not realistic for us to pivot to this model and make it work,” Behn said. “But it seemed like there was strong support for at least allowing all of this clean renewable energy to get built in Hinesburg to address climate change. I think there’s support there.”
“It’s a big disappointment that this isn’t benefiting Hinesburg residents, but it’s out of our control,” Selectboard chair Merrily Lovell said.