Residents are considering one of the largest solar projects in Maine

GREENE – City residents will again be asked to decide whether to accept a major solar panel project that planners say would bring money and jobs to the city.

Swift Current Energy’s so-called Greene Apple Solar Project would spend roughly $200 million deploying solar panels across 600 acres that would connect to Maine’s central electric grid, with the potential to power the equivalent of 30,500 Maine homes annually provided.

Fast flowThe project documentation lists the benefits the city would reap if voters ultimately accept the plan. For starters, the Greene Apple Project would result in payments totaling millions of dollars in new revenue to the city over the project’s twenty- to thirty-year lifespan.

On Nov. 18, Greene voters will be asked to weigh in on an amendment to the city’s existing solar ordinance, which would limit the size of solar energy systems in the city to 15 acres and impose other restrictions on size and location of the solar panels. .

The Greene Planning Board initiated the proposed change in response to strong opposition among residents to the latest plan.

For Swift Current, the success of that amendment would be a dealbreaker.

“If the proposed solar ordinance amendment is adopted, the Greene Apple Solar Project will not be constructed,” the project documentation states, “and the city and residents will lose the substantial benefits described above.”

Project planners expect to pay more than $2 million to the city in the first year of operations and about $1 million annually thereafter. The city’s current tax budget is approximately $2 million.

Thopse planners say the solar panels would provide the city with “a significant influx of new revenue that the city can spend on general funds without the need for new city services.”

Massachusetts-based Swift Current also expects the plan to create 150 full-time jobs during construction and three to five full-time jobs once the project is in operation. The project would also provide improvements to several city roads, including Coburn Road and two private roads, North Hills Ridge and North Ridge Road.

A Community Benefit Fund would provide an additional $150,000 annually to the city, according to project documentation.

In addition, planners say, “The project will provide the highest levels of clean, sustainable energy to the state of Maine at a cost-effective and reliable price, allowing Maine to reduce its carbon emissions.”

The solar panels would be placed on private property; large parcels owned by George Schott and Vista of Maine. The project would span more than 600 acres along the CMP corridor, from North Hills Ridge Road, near Vista of Maine, across Sawyer Road near the horse stable, along Bull Run Road to the property across the Dead River.

The plan proposed this time is slightly different from the one that the city’s residents overwhelmingly rejected in 2022. That project, also by Swift Current, required the installation of solar panels on city property.

Greene, and many other towns of its size in Maine, have historically rejected plans for large-scale solar panels.

“They don’t like the look of these endless fields of solar panels,” said Greene Code Enforcement Officer Brent Armstrong. “This is going to be a huge project, and I think that has worked against Swift Current in a way. People have had time to process how big this is.”

“Everyone in town here who is against the plan knows very well what they don’t like about it,” Armstrong said. “I hope they will at least consider that this would be a huge source of revenue for the city without any demands on resources.”

How Greene’s people will vote is anyone’s guess.

By 2022, Residents voted down a measure that would have authorized the city to enter into a lease and associated easement agreement with Greene Apple Solar Power, a subsidiary of Swift Current Energy.

During that vote, residents were largely opposed to leasing the land to Greene Apple Solar Power because they wanted the land to be developed for recreational fields instead, as city officials suggested when the land was purchased several years ago.

Whether voters will be swayed by the fact that the currently proposed arrays would be on private property remains to be seen.

On the Citizens of Greene Facebook page, a thread about the solar project generated more than 100 comments from local residents concerned about the proposal. Among those comments were concerns that the arrays would negatively impact the local environment in several ways, including soil erosion and the disruption of natural habitats and wildlife migration patterns.

Many viewed solar panels in general as “an eyesore” and one that would diminish the city’s charm and possibly reduce property values.

“Our beautiful town will be converted into the largest solar power plant in the state of Maine,” one woman warned.

Others wondered whether solar energy would still be considered practical in a number of years, while some feared their energy bills would increase instead of decrease as a result of the project.

Armstrong, who is tasked with distributing information to the public ahead of the Nov. 18 meeting, worries that people may be underestimating the amount of money the project would bring to the city.

“It would take 5,000 single-family homes to generate that kind of revenue,” he said, “and that puts a huge drain on resources. So I hope people will at least consider that.

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