The township will be proceeding after all with an application to the province for a solar energy project at the PMD arena.
“It doesn’t bind us to anything; it just gets the ball rolling,” Finance Director Mike Givens said on Feb. 8.
Givens said he has discussed the matter with officials from Essex Energy, who have proposed a 170-kilowatt, $1-million solar project on the arena roof. He noted he told Essex Energy to proceed with the Feed-in Tariff (FIT) application, which he will review, and then there is a 120-day turnaround.
Essex Energy previously offered to pay the $500 application fee and Givens has said the township should proceed because there may be impending changes to the FIT program, which is a guaranteed pricing structure for renewable electricity production.
Council hasn’t decided if it is proceeding with the solar energy project. If goes forward, the township must also decide if it wants to own the project outright, become a co-owner (Essex officials mentioned the municipality could own 30%), or simply lease the space on the roof to Essex.
At least one resident has expressed concern with the possibility of the township moving forward with the project.
“I opine municipalities are not entrepreneurs,” John Mohle said in a recent letter to council. Let the private capitalist sector do their thing. You can tender out roof rental/lease to get closer to making the numbers work at the arena.”
