News

Oct 25, 2023

Town is offered up to $850,000 to support solar projects

Rodney Galton, of Allco Renewable Energy Ltd., gives a presentation last year

Rodney Galton, of Allco Renewable Energy Ltd., gives a presentation last year before the Bennington Planning Commission on the solar developer's revised Chelsea Solar project. The company will meet Monday with the Select Board and bring an offer to pay the town up to $850,000 if officials support two stalled Allco solar projects on Apple Hill.

BENNINGTON — A solar developer whose two projects in the Apple Hill area remain stalled for lack of permitting is offering the town up to $850,000 if officials support the plans before the state Public Utility Commission.

In the kind of full-court-press approach Allco Renewable Resources, LTD. has deployed here in the past, the developer also is lobbying town residents directly through a mass mailing aimed at drumming up community support for the company proposals.

Select Board Chairwoman Jeannie Jenkins said Monday it had come to the board's attention "that a mass postcard mailing was sent to area residents with QR codes that link to the PUC and the Bennington Select Board."

She said the board "does not endorse these actions and will wait to hear information at the June 12 meeting before making a decision on the [solar proposal]."

Company officials are expected to discuss their bid to gain town support for a revised design for one of their projects, called Chelsea Solar.

The revised 2-megawatt project design, the developers have argued, now meets the definition of a "preferred" solar site in the town energy plan and therefore should be supported.

However, the town Planning Commission reviewed the company's revisions and assertions during two hearings and voted in January to recommend against the Select Board declaring that the project now meets the preferred site definition.

The town energy plan includes mapped areas totaling about 500 acres that are preferred for solar projects. It also allows other sites to be considered if they meet certain specifications, such as having adequate natural screening.

The revisions proposed in the new Chelsea Solar design aim to meet those conditions and qualify as a preferred site.

The next step in the process will be for the Select Board to decide whether to comment on behalf of the town during the PUC's project application review, and if so, what the recommendation should be.

Asked Monday about the flurry of moves by the developer, Jenkins said, "The Chelsea Solar discussion on the June 12 agenda is to determine if there is any additional information that would warrant the Select Board's reconsideration of the Planning Commission's [negative] recommendation."

Jenkins added, "The Select Board's decision will be made based on the merits of the case."

She said the board meanwhile is concerned that the developers "have offered money to both the homeowners of Apple Hill and to the Select Board for a favorable ruling."

Members of the Apple Hill Homeowners Association, which has staunchly opposed the two projects over nearly a decade through several attempts by Allco Renewable Energy to gain permits, said earlier this year that they had been offered unspecified cash payments per household to drop their opposition.

Members apparently turned down the offer after discussing it during a private meeting several months ago, but they have declined to comment publicly on the offer.

Association member Bill Knight said Tuesday in an email, "We are aware the developer has offered the town money to persuade them to accept his project as a preferred site. We are confident the Select Board will not accept money for [this project] that goes against the town plan. The developer has also not been successful [before] the PUC and Supreme Court."

Knight added, "I saw the postcard yesterday. I do not think it will have an impact to sway the Select Board."

The association has opposed both projects in multiple permitting attempts before the PUC and during company appeals of permit rejections to the Vermont Supreme Court. None of the company's appeals have yet resulted in a required certificate of public good permit from the PUC.

Among objections raised by opponents that led to permit rejections are the potential impacts on a prominent scenic area of town – and those possible effects on the tourism industry — and the area's location in the Rural Conservation zoning district, which limits development.

The current offer of payments to the town was detailed in a powerpoint display to be presented Monday during the 6 p.m. Select Board meeting by a representative of Ecos Energy, LLC, Allco's renewable energy development and services company.

Copies of the powerpoint were sent to town officials and obtained by the Banner.

The presentation lays out offers of $425,000 to the town to support the Chelsea project and another $425,000 if the town also supports the adjacent Apple Hill Solar plan.

Both are commercial-size facilities that would have a 2-megawatt power generating capacity.

The money would come from a federal Low-Income Community Bonus Investment Tax Credit, which the developer would apply for and estimates could total $425,000 for each solar project. Payments would be delivered to the town once the projects are permitted and generating power.

According to the company presentation, the bonus tax credit increases the standard investment credit by 10 percentage points, and both the Chelsea Solar and Apple Hill Solar projects "are located in a qualifying low-income community for the bonus ... We estimate the amount of that additional tax credit is around $425,000 per project."

The Allco proposal adds, "In exchange for the town's support of the projects before the PUC, using the current standard offer power purchase agreements and receiving certificates of public good, we would pay upon commercial operation $425,000 per project to the town for the town to use for its affordable housing efforts or as it otherwise sees fit."

In addition, the proposal sent to town officials states that the company "would assume the risk of receiving the allocation from the [Internal Revenue Service] for the bonus Low-Income Community credit."

The presentation also disputes some of the assumptions of Planning Commission members while they discussed the revised Chelsea project design and whether it could meet the preferred solar site definition.

Michael Melone, vice president and general counsel with Allco Renewable Energy, emailed multiple copies of the powerpoint PDF this week to town officials.

During several permit applications, rejections, revisions and appeals over more than eight years, the developer has appealed multiple negative decisions by the PUC to the commission and PUC rulings to the Vermont Supreme Court.

The company also has filed lawsuits against the town and project opponents in state and federal courts over site access routes, alleged conflicts of interest and other issues. None of the suits filed for those purposes appear to be active at this time.

Melone's father, Thomas Melone, the company president and senior counsel, also has participated in the PUC permitting process and appeals.

Jim Therrien can be reached at [email protected] or by phone at 413-281-2646.

{span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sans-serif;"} {/span}

Jim Therrien writes for the Vermont News and Media newspapers, including the Bennington Banner, Manchester Journal and Brattleboro Reformer.