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Date: 4/12/2023
GRANVILLE — After a public hearing April 3, the town’s Planning Board approved three special permits that will allow a Boston-based solar energy company to build agrivoltaic solar arrays on three privately owned agricultural properties in town.
With more than 60 residents in attendance in the Granville Village School gymnasium, several representatives from BlueWave solar, an engineer with the Reading-based engineering firm Weston & Sampson, and the town’s Planning Board Chair Richard Pierce answered various questions posed by the residents about the proposed project.
The agrivoltatic solar project involves three different properties: 170 South Ln., which developers have named BWC Tillotson Brook LLC; 274 South Ln., named BWC Seymour Brook LLC; and 123 Barnard Rd., known as BWC Trumble Brook LLC.
These projects are different from traditional solar array projects in that the solar panels are placed in a way that allows agricultural ongoing operations.
“All the [owners of the properties] must continue to farm these lands under the panels,” Pierce said.
The properties must continue agricultural operations for BlueWave to qualify for tax incentives offered by the state Department of Energy Resources.
Before the public hearing began, Pierce explained to the residents attending that the Planning Board had thoroughly vetted each of the requests from BlueWave when it applied for the special permit.
During the vetting process, the board submitted the proposals for each of the projects to the town’s provider of engineering services, VHB, which didn’t uncover any issues in the proposals, Pierce said.
Weston & Sampson engineer Robert Bukowski said, when offering the details of the Seymour Brook project, there would be two different solar arrays that would cover about 24 acres of the 122-acre property to allow enough room for growing apple trees for making cider, and hay.
Both sets of arrays will stand about 10 feet above the ground. In the area where the apple orchard will be located, the panels will be placed 26 feet apart, which will allow agricultural equipment to be moved between them, Bukowski said.
Where hay will be grown and harvested, the space between the solar panels will be 18 feet, which will provide adequate sunlight and enough room for harvesting equipment, he said.
The panels on the Seymour Brook property are expected to generate 4.05 megawatts of direct current electricity annually.
The solar panels on Tillotson Brook property will be placed on about 21 acres of the 53-acre parcel. Christmas trees and greenery will be the primary crop grown. Those panels will be placed 18 feet apart, also. It is estimated the arrays will generate 3.3 megawatts of direct current electricity annually.
Christmas trees and greenery will also be grown between the panel of the Trumble Brook project, which will cover about 21 acres of the 88-acre parcel. Those panels will generate about 2.7 megawatts of direct current electricity annually.
Each of the projects includes a 20- by 40-foot concrete pad, and on it will be a stack of lithium iron phosphate batteries that will store the electricity when it is needed for hours of peak electricity demand, said Michael Zhe, BlueWave’s director for the three projects.
“Safety is important to us,” he said answering a question about the potential fire hazard of the batteries from a town resident.
He added later in the meeting, that type of battery was considered safer than lithium-ion batteries because if one of the batteries were to overheat and fail, tests have determined it wouldn’t burn through its storage container and risk catching other batteries on fire.
Even using a battery that is less likely to overheat and fail, the batteries will be enclosed in a storage unit that will be outfitted with smoke and heat detectors, and a fire suppression sprinkler system, Pierce said.
“Our emergency services are working with the state fire marshal,” Pierce said about the fire suppression system that will be used in the battery stacks.
Because the electricity generated is direct current, inverters on the battery storage structures will be used to convert it to alternating current for the power grid.
Resident Matt Ripley asked about how the project would affect the town’s property taxes if the three parcels since the three parcels will be removed from the town’s tax rolls.
According to the special permit, BlueWave is paying the town for the megawatts it generates in lieu of taxes.
That payment was negotiated between the town and BlueWave and is expected to generate between $50-84,000 annually above that what the three property owners would have paid in taxes on the property, Pierce said.
Ripley said about the taxes: “That’s the most growth tax-wise we might see in the next 10 years.”
There were also questions about decommissioning the arrays when they reach the end of their useful life.
The project, Zhe said, is bonded to cover the cost of decommissioning.
However, he added, after 20 years, it is possible the panels could continue generating power for another five to 15 years.
Brian Falcetti, a member of the town’s Board of Assessors, said the town wouldn’t bear the financial liability for decommissioning unless the town would take the properties for a tax lien.
If that was to happen, an attorney for BlueWave said the town would still be able to use the decommissioning bond to defray the cost.
Zhe added that the panels, if decommissioned, could be recycled, and sold to defray the cost.
There was also a question about the noise that would be made by the inverters.
The special permit dictates that the noise cannot exceed 10 decibels above what is considered ambient background noise.
One of the BlueWave representative said because of the locations of the battery pads, it is not expected that inverter noise could be heard from any nearby roads.
The projects are expected to begin being built in 2024, but whether one or all of them will be under construction at the same time has yet to be decided, Zhe said.
One of the potential delays is Eversource building the electrical infrastructure to flow the power into its grid.
Zhe said the details of when the infrastructure will be completed are still undetermined, but there has only been one occasion where a project was delayed because of that.
The Planning Board approved the special permit with a number of conditions that must be met by BlueWave before it can begin construction.
They include provisions like providing clear operational maintenance schedules, specific plantings on each parcel, a written application if any of the permit’s specifications need modification, stormwater structure maintenance schedules and the interconnection agreement between BlueWave and Eversource.