Solartech secured a commitment from NYSERDA for approximately $400,000 in grant funding, according to Roberts, the CEO. With the funding in hand, the company submitted the PPA that the Town Board is no longer considering. Among those in attendance at the Town Board meeting were Roberts and Christopher Alsante, Solartech’s director of business development.
“We would like the opportunity to respond to the town’s concerns about prices and other issues with the contract — the opportunity to fix something before the town throws it out,” said Alsante. “We would also like to offer input on subjects like the site plan. We have never been afforded an opportunity to respond.” To no avail, he urged Magarelli and Wenk to withhold the resolution to terminate consideration of the PPA until Solartech had a chance to “address your concerns in a clear, concise manner.”
“I don’t see us throwing anything out,” replied Woodstock supervisor Jeremy Wilber, noting that he supported the town’s exploration of solar energy. “When one door closes, another opens, but when you are urging the community to enter into a 20-year commitment, you must have your arms wrapped around it. I can’t communicate this (proposal) cogently or persuasively enough to the public. There are too many moving parts for me to ask the public to support this project at the ballot box.”
Councilmen at odds
Panza, who has supported the town’s consideration of the Solartech proposal but warned that the solar project, however environmentally worthy, could be a money-losing proposition for Woodstock in the long run, engaged in an occasionally pointed exchange with Wenk over the resolution to scrap the PPA and start all over.
“What would you change in a new RFP process?” asked Panza at one point. He added: “I think that the pricing that we have (in the Solartech PPA) is based on the current economics of solar energy. I don’t think that proceeding with a new RFP will lead to much difference. We have a proposal on the table. Let’s see if (Solartech) would modify it.”
Responded Wenk, who repeatedly pressed Panza to declare what course of action he favored, “The Town Board as a whole wasn’t on top of the process. It left the work to others. We need wider-ranging input and oversight by the Town Board. Ron Pordy has suggested ways in which a new RFP could produce new and better results for the town.”
Panza acknowledged that a 750-megawatt solar array would be “huge” — too big, he said, for the proposed site at the sewer plant. Because other questions about the site’s suitability remained unanswered, the town should hire its engineer, the Kingston firm Brinnier & Larios, to conduct a study of the property, Panza added.
Councilman Bill McKenna agreed that the array under consideration was oversized. “I’m all for solar energy, but I suggested months ago that we explore a smaller project,” he said, adding later, “A new RFP might not lead to a PPA arrangement, but it could lead, for example, to the town’s building its own facility.” McKenna noted that it could be feasible to build such a facility on an existing municipal property, using an alternative technology like “solar shingles.”
Roberts expressed hope that Solartech could participate in whatever plan the town eventually devised. Meanwhile, he observed, NYSERDA’s current commitment for grant funding might expire; moreover, if Woodstock sought a new grant on its own, it might have to settle for a lesser amount, since recent trends favor commercial over municipal projects.
“We want to see what the committee comes up with,” Roberts said in an interview. “I’m not sure of the purpose of the board’s action. This has been a typical process, which unfolds to address all of the issues that were raised tonight. All of these issues could be resolved in two or three months — the time horizon for an ordinary process — but now we’re starting over. The direction that the Town Board has taken to get the information it needs is actually counterproductive. If the board proceeds with another public solicitation Solartech will respond, but we would be the town’s vendor without benefit of the NYSERDA grant.”
