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01/25/2022 11:00 PMAfter more than a year and a half negotiating all permitting and approvals, construction is getting underway to build Citrine Power's 2.6-megawatt solar array in a North Branford farm field at 127 Forest Road.
"We're finally in construction; and if you're driving by Forest Road, you will be able to see a lot of activity that's happening. We're putting in a new driveway, the silt fence is up, the storm water basin is up," said Cela Sinay-Bernie, Managing Partner of Citrine Power LLC (Greenwich), in an update shared on Jan. 25.
Citrine will install 6,000 solar array panels on about 10 acres among 27 acres on the farm property. Citrine is leasing the land, part of Page Farm, from property owner Mark DiLongo for a period of 25 years. In addition, Citrine has entered a private-public partnership with the Town of North Branford. Once the solar array is operational, both the landlord and the Town will benefit from virtual net metering agreements with energy provider United Illuminating (UI) for the 25-year period.
"Page Farm is going to be the beneficiary as a host account, where they're going to be able to offset all of their electricity bills," said Sinay-Bernie. "Since the system's a little bit bigger than what they can offset at their own farm, the rest of it virtually is going to offset power bills of the Town of North Branford and of the schools."
North Branford Economic Development Coordinator Roger Salway said that, based on Citrine's experience with other municipalities; annual savings should range between 20 to 30 percent of the utility bill generated by all Town properties. Citrine has installations in other Connecticut towns including East Haven and Middlefield.
"What happens is the Town sells electricity from the solar farm to United Illuminating at the full retail rate, and then we pay back some part of that to Citrine Power, who are investing something like $6 million in this program," said Salway. "The net to the Town, if you use that 20-to-30-percent range, is between $90,000 to $120,000 per year. Given that it's a 25-year program, it's kind of like a boost to the grand list."
Another benefit to the Town is what Sinay-Bernie termed a "very elegant solution" to a long-standing contamination issue on surrounding properties, for which the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) requires appropriate clean up.
"It's a very elegant solution that we all collectively came up with, including DEEP," she said. "This piece of property was part of a collection of properties that had been under investigation with DEEP, because not this specific property, but the properties associated with it, have some clean up that they have to have on the property."
Citrine typically pays an annual lease payment to its landlords to lease properties; and in this case, almost 95 percent of that payment will be placed into an account by DEEP, said Sinay-Bernie, "... so that DEEP and the current landlord can use those funds to clean up the adjacent sites and other sites. So that's an elegant solution; not only to make productive use of the site we're on, but an adjacent site."
Construction Time Line
Per Citrine's DEEP general contractor, the site first needs to be stabilized to DEEP recommendations for storm water and general construction permits. Once in place, solar array construction will begin.
Right now, support work for the project is making headway despite getting its start in winter, said Sinay-Bernie. The driveway into the site off Forest Road, now under construction, is estimated to be completed in about two weeks' time. Next, UI will begin installing utility poles; concurrent with that, Citrine's "racking," or solar array framework, will be going in.
"Once the racking goes in, you'll see it taking shape, and it goes very quickly," said Sinay-Bernie. "And [with] the panels and racking, it will look as if there is a solar power plant right there; but of course all the cabling has to go in; everything needs to be interconnected, they have to build all the electrical work. But physically, in a very short period of time, assuming the weather cooperates, it will start taking physical shape," likely toward the end of February.
With most of the solar array materials already waiting in warehouses, supply chain issues are not expected to impact the construction timeline, she added.
"We have our panels in the warehouse; the racking is already manufactured and waiting for us [and] all of our electrical" equipment, she said, adding the transformer is expected to arrive in March.
Once the transformer arrives and is in place, "UI needs to then inspect it; and turn on the system," said Sinay-Bernie.
The solar array, which will be fenced in, will be bordered by plantings of shrubs and other landscaping, including sunflowers. The sunflowers planted will be part of North Branford Economic Development Commission's ongoing "Sunflower Project" sunflower seed planting program. Sinay-Bernie said Citrine will once again sponsor the seed program for the town this year.