Warner voters at Wednesday’s town meeting overwhelmingly approved a solar array that will generate electricity for all municipal buildings. A similar array was rejected by a slim margin last year.
The town voted 270-44 to approve the project on a ballot vote. Now that the project has been approved, construction for the array will start later this year at a site next to the town transfer station, and Warner officials say they expect to be able to start powering town buildings and putting energy into the Eversource grid by 2018.
The project has a price tag of $338,530, and is being paid for by a combination of a $273,595 bond from the New Hampshire Community Development Finance Authority and a $64,935 rebate from the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission. Both the bond and the rebate have been finalized, and select board Chairman Clyde Carson said the town is pursuing additional federal grant money to bring the cost down further.
Town officials stressed that the project will not impact the tax rate, and said they believe it will actually add to the tax base in future years.
Carson said that once the bond on the project is paid off, the town will be able to start making money off of whatever excess energy is generated by the solar array and not used by municipal buildings and put back into the electrical grid.
The select board estimated that the array would generate enough electricity to bring an estimated net revenue to the town of about $171,000 by year 15, and more than $400,000 by year 25.
“It’s pure profit. It’s like a really good taxpayer in town,” Carson said. “We think it’s a good deal for the town, near-term and long-term.”
But some in town had questions about whether the array would return money to Warner, or would simply mean the town is stuck paying for rising energy costs.
“The way (Eversource does) that is raising their rates,” resident John Heaton said. “The rates will continue to climb the more solar arrays they have to support. The arrays will not provide what we need and the prices will go up.”
Heaton said he had been doing research and was concerned that a solar array would need batteries to run.
Solar energy expert George Horrocks disagreed.
“Batteries are off the table, not necessary,” said Horrocks, the president of Hampton-based Harmony Energy Works.
Horrocks explained that with New Hampshire’s net metering system, the town’s array would generate and over-produce electricity during the day and would therefore have a reserve to draw on when municipal buildings use electricity at night.
He pushed back on Heaton’s concern about rising energy costs, saying the increasing cost of fuel like natural gas is to blame, not solar arrays.
“The largest impact has nothing to do with solar … it has everything to do with the cost of fuel,” Horrocks said. “There is no magic bullet except to take control of your own destiny, and that’s what solar does.”
It was a packed house in Warner’s town hall Wednesday – both the main floor and balcony floors were filled at the start of the meeting, with people standing in side aisles and in the lobby.
Voters unanimously approved a $3.07 million operating budget, which is going up $44,437 or 1.47 percent from last year.
Residents also voted 159-49 to raise and appropriate $182,000 for the capital reserve fund for a new fire station. Town officials have already bought property for the building to be constructed.
Wednesday’s vote was the next step toward finalizing the design of a new fire station. The town’s current fire station is too small for equipment and does not have proper ventilation. There is currently no estimated cost for the station, but officials said it will most likely exceed $2 million.
Warner residents will vote on whether or not to approve the proposal for the new fire station at next year’s town meeting.
(Ella Nilsen can be reached at 369-3322, enilsen@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @ella_nilsen.)