Wetlands Agency Reviews Solar/Electric Project

For Sewage Plant

By Andrew Gorosko

Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC) members are reviewing the technical aspects of a proposal to install solar energy equipment at the municipal sewage treatment plant to generate electricity for use there.

Representatives of OPEL Solar, Inc, of Shelton presented IWC members with details on the proposal at a January 11 public hearing. OPEL made the solar application to the IWC on behalf of the town public works department.

The IWC conducted the hearing because an about 100-foot-long section of chain-link security fencing adjacent to the solar equipment would pass through an area that is under IWC jurisdiction.

OPEL representative Michael Robinson told IWC members that the proposed solar arrays would generate about 75 kilowatts of electricity for use at the treatment plant.

Fred Hurley, town public works director, said that the energy produced by the solar arrays would provide approximately 30 percent of the electricity required by the sewage plant. The facility is one of the heaviest users of electricity locally, considering the amount of electrical equipment that it uses, including pumps.

Mr Robinson said that to maximize their electrical output, the photovoltaic arrays would track the course of the sun across the sky from east to west during the course of a day.

The project would have a minimal effect on wetlands, with only an approximately 100-foot-long, six-foot-tall section of chain-link fencing extending into a wetlands area, Mr Robinson said.

OPEL representative Ed Linke said the solar panels should provide about 25 to 30 years of electric generation service. At their tallest point, the solar panels would stand about 8½ feet high, he said. The solar arrays would be positioned atop a series of vertical I-beams. The area beneath the solar panels would have a gravel surface.

Public Comment

During the public comment section of the hearing, two Conservation Commission members spoke on the photovoltaic proposal.

 Conservation Commission member Joseph Hovious termed the application “a neat project.”

Mr Hovious asked, however, whether the solar installation holds the prospect of creating any new warm stormwater runoff at the sewage plant site. Mr Hovious noted that there is a trout stream in the area that could be adversely affected by any warm stormwater runoff which enters it.

During warm weather, flowing stormwater may become warmed by its contact with warm pavement before that stormwater enters drainage structures and eventually enters streams.

Also, Mr Hovious said there are some mature trees in the area which stabilize a streambank. He asked whether those trees would cast shadows onto the solar arrays.

Conservation Commission Chairman Mary Gaudet-Wilson asked whether any stormwater runoff created by the project would negatively affect a nearby stream.

In response to those questions, Mr Linke said that the mature trees would not have any effect on the photovoltaic arrays.

The solar panels would tend to reduce the temperature of the stormwater which falls onto the panels because the panels absorb heat, Mr Linke said.

Stormwater that drains off of the panels would drop onto a graveled area beneath the panels, Mr Robinson said. Thus, that drainage would seep into the soil beneath that gravel and not flow away as stormwater runoff, he added.

 IWC Chairman Anne Peters said that IWC members would review the technical aspects of the solar energy project and likely take action on the application at their January 25 session.

The project does not require approval from the Planning and Zoning Commission.

The sewage treatment plant site at 24 Commerce Road is in a M-5 (Industrial) zone.

The overall solar/electric project has a budget extending up to about $513,000. About $338,000 of that amount would be covered by a Connecticut Clean Energy Fund grant, with the town’s Water & Sewer Authority (WSA) having authorized an additional $175,000 in spending for the project from its capital reserve fund.

The WSA oversees the sewage treatment plant, which provides wastewater treatment for the central municipal sewer system that started operation in 1997.