By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

CASCO— The construction costs rose for a solar farm that will supply electricity to the municipality.

The solar project was recently approved at Casco Annual Town Meeting. It was after town meeting that the town received the revised cost estimates for building the solar farm on the Casco-Naples Transfer Site property. 

The good thing is that this inflation won’t impact the taxpayers because the project will rely on outside business investors, and not tax dollars, according to Casco Town Manager Anthony Ward. 

“The whole project is increasing from $474,300 to an anticipated cost of $559,367.  That is all being absorbed upfront by their [Revision Energy’s] investment team,” Ward said. 

“The part that would effect the community is: If at year six, the town authorizes the purchase of the solar farm, it will be for a different price than originally quoted,” he said.  

The town’s year six buy-out cost increased from $286,809 to $356,745, he said. 

Last week, Ward presented an update on the solar farm proposed by Revision Energy.

Because a town cannot get tax breaks — such as those associated with investing in solar energy, businesses put up the money for solar infrastructureand receive the tax breaks.

Those tax incentives run out after five years. At that point in time, the municipality has the option to purchase the solar equipment.

In addition to construction cost increases, the wattage has been bumped up, too. 

“The one thing you will notice, if you compared the two proposals, you’ll see the increase from the originalproposal of 153 kilowatts to 155.52 kilowatts,” Ward said. “It just produces more energy.”

The savings on electricity spiked, too. 

“The anticipated savings for the town, as a consumer, has almost doubled,” Ward said. 

In the first proposal, the 25-year savings was supposed to be $335,000 — if the town purchased the solar farm in year six. Now, with a buy-out, that 25-year savings is predicted to be $591,000. 

Chairman Robert MacDonald noted the long-term benefits. 

“By the 40-year mark, we would save more than $1,000,000,” he said.

“Correct,” the town manager said. 

He updated the board on Revision Energy’s permitting process with Central Maine Power (CMP). 

“They have submitted to CMP the feasibility of attaching to the power lines,” Ward said.

Revision did that in late June and expects a decision from CMP sometime in July, he said.  

“If there is no connectivity problem, they will begin the process of building. Their timeline for completion — if there are no delays or no hiccups based on connectivity or materials —  is to have this completed by early of next year,” Ward said. “The project would start as early as October.”