Pownal Holds Meeting On Proposed Solar Installation

(Host) Plans are moving forward for a green energy park at the former `Green Mountain Race Track in Pownal.

Two renewable energy projects, one solar and another using wood, are in the works for the 144-acre property.

VPR's Susan Keese has more.

(Keese) The track has hosted big bucks bingo games and some outdoor events, but little else since it closed in 1992.

Pownal Select Board chairman Nelson Brownell has seen proposals come and go. In each case, he says, the necessary financing failed to come together.

(Brownell) "This one seems a little more positive than I've heard in the past. I think the potential for things going in the right direction is very good."

(Keese) A group called Progress Partners, that bought the track in 2004, has been trying to attract energy companies looking to take advantage of incentives for renewable power projects.

This Tuesday, Pownal hosts a public hearing on a proposed 15-acre solar panel array that would generate 2.2 megawatts on the property. The hearing is part of the project's bid for a permit from the Vermont Public Service Board.

(Fairbank) "We're moving forward on the permitting and don't anticipate any problems on that front."

(Keese) Tyler Fairbank is the CEO of EOS Ventures, the Massachusetts-based company behind the solar farm. He says the company successfully launched 10 renewable power projects last year.

The solar project has already been accepted into a Vermont program that guarantees an advantageous 20-year rate for ‘green' energy. The company hopes to build in 2010, to qualify for other state and federal incentives due to expire at the end of this year.

(Fairbank) "We have a track record of getting projects done. We've developed a cadre of tax equity partners out there who have confidence enough in the projects that we bring to the table, and we're able to leverage that to make these projects work."

(Keese) A second, even larger venture is in the works foranother part of the old track: a 29 megawatt biomass operation that would also manufacture wood pellets.

The company behind it, Beaver Wood Energy, is partnering with Bechtel Group, the country's largest engineering firm, to design and build the plant.

Beaver Wood Energy's plan includes a boiler with a smokestack that could be more than 180 feet high.

Unlike the solar farm, the biomass operation would create jobs - as many as 50, and a few hundred more during the two-year construction period.

Nelson Brownell, the select board chair, says jobs are what Pownal needs most. He says the town is definitely interested.

(Brownell) "I would say at this point from what I'm hearing it's 90 -10. Ninety percent are positive about it. The other ten are concerned about what kind of pollution comes out of the stack."

(Keese) Tom Emero the director of Beaver Wood Energy, says the company expects to file for a permit from state regulators by the end of the summer.  The company is also proposing a similar plant in Fair Haven.

For VPR News, I'm Susan Keese in Manchester.