How to:

• Forming a Core Team and Allies

  • Build a core team of municipal staff, community members, and stakeholders who are committed to the success of the project. It is ideal to set a regular schedule of project meetings to check in on progress; in many cases, these meetings can be brief, but they help keep the ball rolling and ensure everyone is informed. 

  • Find an ally at the municipal level (e.g., selectboard members, town manager) who will advocate for the project within the local government and rally other leaders behind it. Someone with institutional knowledge and an understanding of how the municipality operates can be a valuable guide for your group.

  • Identify allies within the community, including organizations and individuals who support clean energy and sustainability.

  • Build an initial project budget for the process through submission of an interconnection application and identify how this work will be funded. 

  • Build communal understanding on the project team around what to expect as the project moves forward. It is especially helpful to understand both the distinction between the pre-development and development phases of a solar project and the interconnection process. 

    • Pre-development vs. development: It can be very helpful to break the project into these two phases and to fund the two phases differently. Pre-development work involves determining the town’s energy needs and goals for arrays, site assessment and identification, financial modeling, selection of site and financial pathways, development of a request for proposals, contractor selection, and submission of an interconnection application. Development work involves stewarding the interconnection process and actual development of the array. The cost of pre-development work will depend on whether you are working with a formal project manager as a paid position or a committee of volunteers, or if the project is being managed by existing town staff. The cost of interconnection applications will also vary depending on your local utility. Finally, some formal set assessments might be required depending on the site selected. The Community Action Grants through the Maine Community Resilience Partnership can be a good fit for funding the pre-development phase of municipal solar work. 

    • Interconnection process: It can be very helpful to develop a shared understanding of what to expect in the interconnection process in your community and with your local utility. Some utilities are more solar-friendly than others, and interconnection costs and length of timeline for the process can vary greatly. 

• Defining Goals and Identifying Energy Needs

1. Determine the energy needs of the municipality. This need will help determine the size project you are seeking to install. You can determine your municipality’s energy needs by analyzing past energy bills. It is important to analyze energy bills throughout the course of the year, as energy needs fluctuate at different times of year. 

   1. Start by identifying account types. Small commercial accounts like libraries, small town offices, and small fire departments will utilize the State’s kilowatt-hour Net Energy Billing program. Medium and large accounts with demand charges, like municipal water treatment facilities or large public works facilities, will utilize the State’s tariff rate Net Energy Billing program. A solar array can only participate in the kilowatt hour program or the tariff rate program. Larger municipalities will likely need two arrays to service the different account types. 

   2. After identifying the types of accounts, calculate how many kilowatt hours were used over the course of 12 months in each category. This will help roughly determine the size of the array (s) needed.

   3. Be sure to take into account near-term plans to add items like heat pumps, heat pump water heaters, and/or electric vehicle charging stations, as this infrastructure will change your town’s energy demand. Research how many additional kilowatt hours (kWh) the new installations are expected to use on an annual basis.

   4. Utilize the information gathered to establish a goal size for generation associated with municipally owned array(s).Each solar array will produce differently depending on the site location and panel tilt, however when roughly calculating the size of array needed, a conservative figure in Maine is 1200 kWh produced annually per kW installed. 

      1. For example, if you know your small commercial accounts consume 51,000 kWh on average per year, then to calculate the size of an array needed to cover that energy demand, you would divide 51,000 kWh by 1200 to yield 42.5 kW. Now you know that installing a 42.5 kW array will cover 100% of your small commercial accounts energy demand.

• Assessing Site Suitability:

  • Understanding your town’s energy needs is just the first step in planning the size of your arrange. Size will also be determined by available sites. The next step in the process is to take inventory of municipal property to identify potential locations for the solar array. Include the rooftops of town-owned buildings and town-owned disturbed land in your assessment. Consider site access in your assessment, particularly concerning disturbed land, as constructing access roads will impact the financial model for the project. 

  • Perform an initial screening of potential sites using tools like Project Sunroofts (GIS-based platform for identifying suitable rooftops).

  • Prioritize disturbed sites such as landfills or brownfields for larger ground-mounted systems to avoid environmental impact on undeveloped land.

  • Conduct preliminary site walks before hiring an engineer to assess land for construction, checking for habitat conditions and understanding local regulations.

  • If considering a rooftop array, consider the state of the roof in question; is the roof up for repair or replacement in the near-future?

  • Engage contractors early for preliminary quotes (these will be important in forming financial modeling to assist with the town’s decision-making process) and site evaluations. Ask them about the existing electrical infrastructure, potential interconnection barriers, and groundwork considerations for the proposed site.

  • Assess how the prospective sites align with your goal from step 2. Is there a site that can cover all the solar needed? Would you need two sites?

  • Remember, you might need to consider multiple sites and a distributed approach to generation in order to meet your town’s energy needs. This distributed approach can have additional benefits. Small arrays can be easier to interconnect and distributed generation can positively impact local energy resilience. 
    
    

• Running Economic Analysis:

  • Run an economic analysis using initial quotes from contractors to determine the potential annual energy production from the solar array and form financial projections for the project. It is ideal to involve the full project team in this process, and especially some town leadership who will be able to inform the process with their perspective and bring the increased understanding to the decision-making process that will follow the economic analysis. 

  • Based on the economic analysis, you can make informed recommendations to the town. For example, you might find that a roof can physically hold a large number of solar panels, but if it faces the wrong direction, you’ll need more panels to produce the same amount of energy, which makes the system more expensive. If you decide to move forward with that site, you’ll also need to assess how that choice affects the array’s economic performance.

  1. Being able to clearly articulate these performance caveats in the projections is critical when speaking to the community and people in decision-making positions. People may be hesitant to invest in a solar array if they don’t feel confident about the financial return.

  • Use the financial modeling to estimate the savings from reduced energy costs and the long-term Return on Investment (ROI).

  • Be ready to articulate the financial benefits to both the community and the municipality to build support and move the project forward.

• Engaging the Community and Municipal Leaders

1. Present findings to the governing body (selectboard or town council) and the community. Highlight the pros and cons of each site, as well as the financial and environmental benefits of the project. 

2. Create a menu of options for different system sizes or configurations of arrays.

3. Based on feedback, refine your proposal and suggested pathways forward. 

4. If you will be developing multiple, distributed arrays, decide if you will break the process into steps or release a request for proposals for all arrays upfront. 

• Request for Proposal and Selecting a Contractor

1. When the project receives town approval and is set to move forward, you will work with the town to prepare a Request for Proposal (RFP) and work with the core team to finalize the document before sending it out to contractors. A RFP template linked under resources.

2. Contractors will submit proposals in response to the RFP. Review the proposals with your core team, using an evaluation rubric or an Excel sheet to compare costs, timelines, and other criteria. You might also consider speaking with other towns that have developed municipal solar projects locally to learn more about who they worked with and their experience. During the interview process, be sure to ask potential contractors about their experience with local interconnection processes and with appealing interconnection disputes before the Public Utilities Commission (PUC). You will want to work with a contractor who has an understanding of the local process around interconnection and experience with the PUC.

3. Once a contractor is selected, take the contractor’s proposal to the selectboard or town council for final approval.

4. After approval, work with the contractor to finalize the contract details and begin the interconnection application process. 

• Voter Approval 

1. For smaller projects, it might be possible for your selectboard or town council to approve the project. For larger projects, you may need to take it to the voters for approval during the next town meeting or election.

2. Once the interconnection application is submitted, you might transition into a new budget, depending on how to you have decided to finance the pre-development vs. the development of the project. 

• Interconnection and Utility Coordination

1. After approval, the contractor will submit applications to the utility company for interconnection. Be sure not to start any development of the actual installation without an interconnection agreement from the utility.

2. In some cases, additional studies may be required by the utility, depending on the size of the project. Factor these studies into the timeline and budget.

3. If there are issues with the utility’s approval, appeal processes are available through the Public Utilities Commission (PUC). Having a contractor who can advocate on your behalf can be a big asset. As already noted, during the contractor interview process, ask if they have experience appealing proposals through the PUC. It’s helpful to know in advance whether a contractor is equipped to navigate that process if needed.

• Final Steps and Ongoing Management

1. Once the project is approved and the interconnection agreement is in place, proceed with construction and installation.

2. After installation, ensure proper monitoring of energy production and maintenance to maximize efficiency and savings over the lifetime of the solar system.