WESTFIELD – The City Council voted last night to approve a 20-year lease agreement to allow construction of a solar farm on the cap of the former Twiss Street landfill.
The lease authorizes Citizens Energy Corporation to construct a 1.5-megawatt solar array on the former Twiss Street landfill which several City Council members said is the best, and perhaps, only use of that land.
Boston-based Citizens Energy, which is operating two similar solar farms in Agawam, was selected as the vendor for the project because of its experience in the field of renewable energy. The solar array is expected to cost up to $3 million to construct.
Citizens Energy was one of three firms which responded to a request for proposals released by the city last year after Axio Power Inc. withdrew from a previous lease agreement for a solar array at Twiss Street.
Citizens Energy will construct the facility which will then be operated by Twiss Street Solar LLC at the former landfill. The solar farm operator, under terms of the 20-year agreement, will pay the city $7,500 a year in taxes and an annual in-lieu-of-tax payment of $75,000.
At-large Councilor David A. Flaherty, who cast the lone dissenting vote on the contract authorization, said the city has agreed to purchase all of the power from the solar farm.
“The tax is too low,” Flaherty said. “It’s our own money coming back to us. There is no real benefit to us. This is just our money spinning around. It would be different if that power was being sold to a private company.”
Ward 4 Councilor Mary O’Connell, who did vote to approve the pact, said of the contract “is this a fabulous deal for the city? Probably not. I think we could have done better, but I can’t think of something better to site on a landfill cap.”
Ward 1 Councilor Christopher Keefe, who is also chairman of the Finance Committee which gave a positive recommendation to the full council to approve the contract, said he began his review of the solar project as a “skeptic”, but that as he reviewed it began to see the benefit to the city.
“It’s not a bad deal all in all,” Keefe said. “In addition to the revenue, they will maintain the cap for the next 20 years, so they come pretty close to the $100,000 a year that we would get for a commercial project of that value.”
Keefe said the contract also has the advantage of locking in the $82,500 a year in revenue over the 20-year contract.
“If we taxed it as personal property, we’d start at about $100,000 but the value of the facility would quickly depreciate in value as new technology comes along and the tax revenue decrease,” Keefe said. “This locks them in (to the annual $82,500 payments).”
