Earlier this month, the Windham Town Council approved a plan to cover the roof of the East Windham Fire Station in solar panels. The project, with Portland-based ReVision Energy, will power that fire station, as well as the one in North Windham, at a savings of 9 percent on electricity for the next six years, and considerably more thereafter.

It is a deal similar to the one ReVision made late last year with the city of South Portland, which OK’d the installation of solar panels on its planning and development office. In both cases, ReVision will take advantage of tax credits unavailable to tax-exempt entities like municipalities, while the municipalities pay electricity costs that the company guarantees will stay lower than traditional sources. After six years, the municipality can purchase the solar panels at a reduced rate, and produce electricity for themselves at no cost, with some leftover to sell to the grid.

For South Portland, the panels were just the starting point. The city is now investigating, again in partnership with ReVision, the benefits of turning an old landfill into a solar farm, to include 1,500-1,600 photovoltaic panels covering about 2 acres, enough to power up to 80 homes. More to the point, it would, according to ReVision, take out of the atmosphere 670,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year produced through other means of electricity generation.

“I think the direction that we’re heading in is one that’s in accordance with the city’s sustainability policy,” City Manager Jim Gailey said last week. “It’s very intriguing because large solar fields have not taken off in Maine like they have in other states. To be the first one exploring this and hopefully heading in that direction is exciting and, I think, very forward thinking.”

South Portland’s solar field would be the first of its kind in Maine. But they have been embraced in other states, and around the globe. Massachusetts and New Jersey both have solar fields built on capped landfills, and solar energy has proven to be a solid energy producer, and job creator, in Germany, a country not exactly known for its sunny weather.

“We know the project is viable just from looking at Massachusetts,” South Portland’s assistant city manager, Jon Jennings, said last week. “These kinds of solar arrays are on top of landfills all over the place down there.”

Solar power isn’t the only option for energy conservation. Scarborough, for instance, has installed a highly efficient “tri-generation” system at its town office that uses natural gas to produce electricity, then captures released heat to use for heating or cooling, cutting greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 25 percent.

But solar energy can be used in the kind of scale to make a difference on the power grid. In times of high electricity usage, like during the last string of hot and humid weather, solar energy can help relieve the stress on the grid. The rest of the time, solar can be used to offset some of the carbon emissions produced by other forms of energy production.

Of course, it is only the tax advantages and other bonuses that decrease the price of solar and make it viable now, and some of those credits are lessening or expiring altogether. Maine officials should review how those tax advantages have been used in the state and elsewhere so that they can be adjusted for the long term, in order to create incentives for use and innovation. At the same time, municipalities should keep a close eye on the projects in South Portland and Windham to see how they can reduce local costs and sustain the environment.

Ben Bragdon, managing editor

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