BELFAST, Maine — City councilors are tiring of spending nearly a tenth of their municipal budget on oil, gas and electricity — about $320,000 last year to keep Belfast ticking along.
An oil barrel placed at the corner of High and Main streets for the last few weeks was intended to be a visual reminder Belfast burned 484 barrels of No. 2 heating fuel to heat nine municipal buildings last year, according to Councilor Mike Hurley.
“We’re just burning it up,” Hurley said Thursday morning. “And it’s burning money.”
That’s why he was excited the council voted earlier this month to approve a deal with ReVision Energy of Liberty to install a solar electric array on the roof of the Belfast fire station. The $150,000 project, to be installed before the end of the year, will not cost taxpayers a penny, though. The 180 255-watt solar modules will be put up at ReVision’s expense. In exchange, the company will benefit from tax credits Belfast can’t use because the municipality does not pay taxes. Belfast also will purchase the electricity generated on the fire station roof for six years at a slight discount from the rates the city now pays for its electricity.
The amount of energy generated there likely will amount to 3 or 4 percent of Belfast’s electrical usage and should just about offset the electricity used at the fire station, according to Belfast Economic Development Director Thomas Kittredge. He said he believes the real financial savings for the city will become possible at the end of the six years, when the city can purchase the array and would no longer need to buy the electricity generated there.
“The system could last between 20 and 30 years,” he said. “The only way this is not a good deal for the city is if the costs of electricity dramatically decrease. … I think it’s good, because not only will it give us some insulation against future volatility of energy prices and show our support for renewable energy, we think it will bring positive attention to the city of Belfast.”
It’s not the first municipal solar array to be installed in Maine — just this month, large projects have gotten underway in South Berwick and York, according to the website for ReVision Energy. In Lincolnville, the Lincolnville Community Library will be heated, cooled and lit up by a new solar array on the roof.
“I wish we could say we are the avant garde, but we’re not. We’re behind,” Hurley said. “Everyone is doing this as fast as they can.”
Earlier this year, the Belfast City Council voted after long deliberation to ask the Maine Public Employees Retirement System to divest from fossil-fuel related investments, becoming the first community in the state to do so. Before they voted, several councilors suggested that asking for divestment was just a gesture, arguing the city could and should take other steps to reduce its fossil-fuel use. The solar array is a good first step, according to Hurley and others.
“We’ll be looking at doing more of these projects if this one is successful,” Kittredge said.