A 15-acre solar panel array planned for a site off Old Portland Road in Brunswick has the go-ahead after a Brunswick Planning Board vote Tuesday.

The roughly 5-megawatt, 16,614-panel renewable generation system would sit on the site of the old drive-in movie theater.

The project is privately funded through Turning Point Energy, LLC and engineered by Walsh Engineering Associates, Inc.

Project officials expect to receive the last two state-level environmental permits next month, and are working through the grid connection process now, which would allow construction to begin in early 2022, according to Turning Point Managing Director Michelle Carpenter.

“It’s former use as a drive-in movie theater really makes it kind of an underutilized site,” said Carpenter. “It’s perfect to host the solar system without requiring us to go in and clear a bunch of trees in a mature forest.”

The project would result in just under 9,000 square feet of wetland impact, according to Carpenter, with one northern section of wetland adjacent to a stream sparking concern among some board members as well as Town Councilor Steve Walker, who called into the meeting.

The board ultimately backed the plan in a 5-1 vote, with conditions that the fence be slightly raised to allow more wildlife traffic and that the filling and grading of the wetland of concern be “avoided to the satisfaction of the director of planning and development.”

Board member Jane Arbuckle was the lone dissenting vote.

“We always say ‘yes’ to whatever people want to do when they’re filling in wetlands,” Arbuckle said, advocating for an additional third-party environmental analysis of the impacted wetland.

“These little nips and nabs at wetlands across the landscape are not only going to affect future flood potential but are also nipping away at habitat,” Walker said, supporting the avoidance of impact on the wetland.

“I’m not going to say this isn’t a good site for solar, it probably is,” Walker added.

The solar system intends to be a part of Maine’s Net Energy Billing Program, which allows residential and commercial customers to use solar without physically installing panels.

This particular project would serve commercial, industrial or municipal entities, however, would offset the equivalent electricity use of approximately 750 households, Carpenter said, according to an EPA clean energy calculator.

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