(Host) If you’ve driven North on Route 7 through the town of Ferrisburgh lately, it’s hard to miss.
As you crest the hill, a huge solar installation comes into view. The array of thousands of panels has even appeared to some to be shaped like the state of Vermont, although that’s not what planners intended.
The Ferrisburgh Solar Farm is the largest installation of its kind in the state.
VPR’s Mitch Wertlieb visited the farm with two of the developers.
(Wertlieb) Ernie Pomerleau can barely contain his enthusiasm as he shows off the blue solar panels that cover a ten-acre section of a former cow pasture in Ferrisburgh.
"These whole units….35 degree pitch."
(Wertlieb) His partner in the project was Brian Waxler. Waxler says the permitting process took about a year, but once they were cleared to build, the entire installation only took about 3 months to out together.
On sunny days the solar array can send one megawatt of power into the grid. That’s enough for 170 homes. While 3,800 panels is a lot to produce a small amount of power, Pomerleau says the hope is that this project will drive up demand for more panels, which will help improve the technology:
(Pomerleau) "In ten years our hope is that by pushing this down the road, you’ll be able to do this same one megawatt project on at conventional rates, without incentives.
(Wertlieb) And Waxler says even in the planning process, efficiencies increased:
(Waxler) "When we started this they said it was going to be 5000 panels in order to gain this, and the efficiencies in just the short year that came online, we’re under 4000 panels. In 20 years we’ll look back and laugh at this giant structure to get one megawatt."
(Wertlieb) Ernie Pomerleau acknowledges that solar supplemental– not baseline power that’s always available, but he says it’s clean energy. The only downside is right now it’s expensive.
The project did benefit from federal tax incentives, and it was part of Vermont’s SPEED program, which guarantees a higher rate for the power produced.
Pomerleau says as a Republican real estate developer he does hear criticism of those programs. But he points out that oil has long benefited from subsidies, and comes from countries that aren’t friendly to the United States. Pomerleau thinks its time for a new direction in energy, and that’s worth supporting:
(Pomerleau) "If jobs here is better than jobs there, and less CO2 is better than more and we all agree we need to get off foreign oil, why are we debating climate change? Why don’t we address how, this is one of the hows."
(Host) Pomerleau says financially the project will likely more than break even. And both of the developers say the most rewarding part has been the community’s support.
For VPR News, I’m Mitch Wertlieb in Ferrisburgh.
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