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Officials celebrate Conway Arena solar array

By ADAM URQUHART - Staff Writer | Mar 4, 2020

NASHUA – Over the course of a year, it is said that the electricity generated by 1,296 solar panels operating on the rooftop of the Conway Arena to offset driving the perimeter of the United States 103 times in the average American passenger car now.

A ribbon cutting was held at the ice-skating rink Tuesday to celebrate the completion of this project, which took about two months to wrap up before the end of 2019. The panels were turned on by New Years Eve, and have already produced several megawatt hours of power. This solar array compliments the other two arrays located on top of the Lake Street Fire Station and Nashua Transit garage in working toward meeting the city’s energy reduction goals.

Mayor Jim Donchess said this is an important project for the city in trying to meet its goals. Donchess delivered a proclamation to Dan Weeks, Director of Market Development at ReVision, declaring March 3 as Solar Day in Nashua.

“We’re working hard for a greener Nashua,” Donchess said. “We want to reduce our carbon footprint.”

By 2050, Nashua intends to be totally carbon neutral. This goal will be furthered with future clean energy initiatives, including additional steps toward adding solar at more municipal buildings following the Nashua School Board’s recent approval of two solar projects.

Through a local impact investor who provides the needed funds, solar arrays will be installed at Dr. Norman W. Crisp Elementary School and Fairgrounds Middle School. This undertaking will get underway this summer with ReVision.

“Nashua is on track, is a leader in New Hampshire, and is on track to go much, much further,” Weeks said.

To bring solar online at Conway Arena, David Worthen of Worthen Industries joined this partnership as the local impact investor providing the financing for the project through a power purchase agreement. Unlike the city as a municipality and Conway as a nonprofit, Worthen can take the incentives associated with solar – the tax credits that exist to reduce the price of the system. Weeks said to make these projects possible they need people who have ability to provide tax equity, because tax credits are only available through the tax code.

“By having local companies or individuals step forward as Worthern did here and provide capital at well below the market rate of capital, we can provide a power purchase agreement, which means in simple terms, that Conway Arena and the City of Nashua – the other two facilities – purchase the electricity from the solar panels,” Weeks said. “They don’t buy the panels initially.”

Weeks also said Worthen and other impact investor partners have committed to offering an early buyout, where the city and Conway can decide to buy these systems back if they chose after five years. If not in year six, they can purchase them in a later year. Having gotten a reduced buyout because the tax credits are passed on through that sale, both the City and Conway can then generate their own power from the moment they own the arrays. When there is extra power on a sunny day and there is less consumption in the building, electrons will then flow out over the existing polls and wires, powering the neighborhood.

“We’re no longer having a debate of whether climate change is real, and it’s more about actually finding solutions as opposed to having a debate on whether it’s real or not,” Worthen said.

Adam Urquhart may be contacted at 594-1206, or at aurquhart@nashuatelegraph.com.

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