Greylock Glen Outdoor Center is poised to achieve net-zero energy use with solar carports

ADAMS — The Greylock Glen Outdoor Center is one giant step closer to achieving net-zero energy use with the siting of solar panels on carports in the parking lot.

The panels will deliver all the energy needed to light, heat and cool the entire 9,000-square-foot outdoor center for 25 years — at a potential substantial savings to the town, beginning in early 2026.

The Select Board on Wednesday voted 4-0 to authorize Chair John Duval to sign three sublease documents with Solect Energy to build carports with solar panels at the center’s parking lot and to purchase energy from the solar developer, which will also own and maintain the array, handling any issues. Select Board member Christine Hoyt was absent.

The Greylock Glen Outdoor Center opened to the public Oct. 11. MassAudubon has been doing programming at the center and it is ramping up for the summer season with events and visitors.

“The building was designed to be net-zero, but until we start generating solar, we can’t achieve it,” said Mike Wynn, executive director of the center.

The solar panels are expected to capture up to 169,000 kilowatt hours of solar energy per year — nearly 50,000 more kilowatt hours than the building is expected to use on an annual basis.

Paying 25 cents per kilowatt hour for the duration of the contract, or about 2 cents per kilowatt hour, the town is expected immediately to save a total of $548,000 as the price of electricity delivered from the grid rises by an estimated 3 percent a year. More savings are expected in the long term.

The outdoor center was initially designed as a net-zero building by Maclay Architects. To power the building, the architects envisioned putting a solar array not on the roof, but in the parking lot, although in a different location than in the final design.

About half the panels for the 148-kilowatt array will go over 18 cars on the outer edge of the parking lot; the other half will hang over drainage swales and a grassy area just beyond the guardrail.

Andreas Schmid, vice president of business development at Solect Energy, told the Select Board on Wednesday his company would handle all maintenance of the solar array, including all troubleshooting and any emergencies.

The hope is that electric vehicles parked on site will consume the surplus energy through charging stations. If there is any excess energy, it can be applied as energy credits at the outdoor center or, if they build up, at other town-owned buildings.

Schmid said he hopes to finish construction by Dec. 31 and begin operating in the first quarter of 2026.

Plans for the state-owned Greylock Glen hit yet another obstacle in the decades long push to develop the state-owned property when Shared Estates pulled out of plans to develop a campground there in March.

Solect Energy was chosen as the solar vendor by PowerOptions, an energy-buying consortium of Massachusetts public and nonprofit entities to which Adams belongs.

Early in this process, the town spent $18,000 on a geotechnical boring analysis to determine where to site the footings for the solar project.

It also paid $11,000 for an impact study that was commissioned by National Grid and conducted by a third-party engineering firm to determine whether the solar array would require an upgrade of the grid. The study showed that existing infrastructure could add what Schmid called this solar array.

Schmid said the anticipated total capital cost is about $700,000 for this project.

In a quarter century as the contract with Solect Energy expires, the town will have three options.

• It can buy the array and maintain it.

• It can work out a series of one-year deals with Solect Energy to continue to deliver power from the array.

• It can ask Solect Energy to remove the array.

The Select Board could have opted for either a performance bond or a decommissioning bond, either of which would have added to its price for electricity. 

“The risk is not all that large with this type of transaction,” Town Counsel Jay Sabin said, regarding the performance bond. He said decommissioning bonds would be more typically used in similar cases.

Schmid told the board that the sublease documents guarantee liquidated damages if Solect Energy fails to deliver the promised amount of electricity.

“We have to pay you for the power we didn’t produce,” he said. “We do a really careful job of estimating production. … We don’t just build systems and collect a check and say goodbye.”

As Solect Energy’s general counsel and Sabin were hammering out the final wording of the documents, Schmid was mindful of some deadlines, including an interconnection approval with National Grid and state energy tax credits under the Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target program. He also noted the 12- to 14-week lag for orders for domestic steel needed for the carports.

Before moving forward, Solect Energy will need design approval from the Planning Board and eventually inspections by the local electrical inspector and local building inspector as well as final approvals from National Grid and the state.

Duval considers achieving net-zero status an important next step in the work toward completing the Greylock Glen as a destination.

“Next thing we’re tackling up there is the lease with the café operators,” he said.

Schmid lives in Lenox and skis the Thunderbolt, as well as hikes, mountain bikes and visits Mount Greylock with his family, acknowledged the complexities of siting this solar array, but said it was worth it in the end.

“It was a pleasure working with the town of Adams,” he said. “This is kind of a passion project for me.”