New solar co-op gears up to power hundreds of homes in Maine

Published May 7, 2024 | By: Heather Holland

NORWAY, MAINE — A new energy cooperative aims to roll out solar projects at six sites in Western Maine, eventually producing enough electricity to power 200 to 300 homes. Maine Community Power, expects to be producing power as soon as this year.

The cooperative has steadily received funding for the project, including $98,000 awarded by the state in July and $2.9 million awarded by the US Department of Energy in April, said Scott Vlaun, president of Maine Community Power’s board of directors, who worked with CDI and a volunteer steering committee to form the cooperative. The rest of the money needed for the project will be covered by loans and federal tax credits, Vlaun said.

Maine Community Power’s solar project is unique to many other solar projects in that they use rotating, or tracking, solar arrays that sit about eight feet above the ground, allowing the ability to grow pastures, and potentially other types of agriculture, underneath them. Rather than completely taking over the land, there can be multiple uses for the sites, Vlaun said. Another benefit of using tracking technology, which allows panels to tilt to follow the path of the sun, is that the same amount of power can be captured using about 40% fewer panels than a typical fixed-tilt ground mounted system, he explained.

Maine Community Power will partner with landowners in Western Maine to lease the land needed for the projects, in 20-year contracts, providing income to local landowners and farmers, Vlaun said. The cooperative also plans to work with landowners, who are interested, to use a method called agrovoltaics, in which you farm the land under the panels. Each site will occupy about an acre.

The solar tracker technology will be manufactured and delivered by All Earth Renewables, based in Vermont. They’re ready to deploy at a fast pace, supplying equipment for about two sites per month, each with twenty trackers, once the projects are up and running, according to Vlaun. The cooperative wants to use local contractors for site work and installation while bringing project development and construction management in-house by forming a sister company, he said.

“A lot of these types of projects use out-of-state companies for development and installation,” said Vlaun. “We really want to keep our renewable energy dollars circulating in the local economy, rather than use another extractive model.”

For households to access the electricity produced by the project, rate payers will need to become member-owners of the cooperative. To become a member-owner, residents must live in a Central Maine Power service area anywhere in the state. They’ll need to pay a minimal upfront fee to join, but they’ll receive a 20% discount on the cost of each kilowatt/hour used and will ultimately save more money on their energy bill, Vlaun said.

Maine Community Power is currently recruiting member-owners and potential site hosts. Anyone who wants to join should reach out through their website here: www.mainecommunitypower.com.

As part of the cooperative, member-owners will also be able to elect Maine Community Power’s board of directors and decide together how the cooperative will charge and how they want to invest funds, Vlaun said.

The idea for Maine Community Power, which incorporated this year, has been in the works since 2017. But at the time, Maine’s solar policy was too restrictive and it wasn’t until Maine changed its policy in 2019 that it got easier to start implementing solar in the state, said Vlaun, whose day job is Executive Director of the Center for an Ecology Based Economy (CEBE).

The project finally grew legs when CEBE received a $100,000 Energizing Rural Communities Prize last year. That funded the technical assistance needed to start organizing, Vlaun said.

When asked why CEBE started the cooperative, Vlaun said it was about giving more power to consumers through democratic control of generation resources.

“If we can build this thing to have 1,000 or 10,000 owners over time, we’re creating a movement, an energy democracy movement that will help guide Maine’s energy policy,” said Vlaun. “We want to help Maine meet our renewable energy goals. We would ultimately like to sell power at a fixed price, so that costs aren’t tied to external factors like natural gas and the war in Ukraine, which are completely out of our control. We want to bring back the control to the consumer.”

To learn more about Maine Community Power or to become a owner/subscriber, visit their website: www.mainecommunitypower.com.

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