Town keeps resolution for solar power project

Just in time, the town of Charlotte achieved an old year’s resolution by New Year’s Eve.

The energy modernization project met its goal to get to a funding “safe harbor,” or in other words, to have met certain specified goals by Dec. 31, in order to qualify for federal incentive money funding 30 percent of the price for making town buildings more energy and cost efficient.

And the deadline, that had seemed difficult to achieve, was met.

On the last day of 2025, Jim Hodson of the town’s energy committee confirmed the town had met those requirements by having a project contractor and 5 percent of the needed solar panels delivered and paid for in time.

The town has contracted with renewable energy company Harvestar and the solar panels are sitting in its warehouse with the town’s order number attached. Hodson said, “So, we’re good to go.”

The town will use Scagnelli & Son Heat Pump, a company that installs and maintains heat pumps in Chittenden County, to supply and install heat pumps for the project.

Hodson said he expects the solar panels will be put up first with the heat pump installation following.

People can probably expect to see construction work for the panels on both east and west sides of the fire station’s roof in March, during the “shoulder season” when there is not as much demand for either heating or cooling, he said.

Now, although the town has until mid-August to meet the state permit deadline, Hodson said he expects it will be finished by May. That would be best because the first loan payment would be due after the end of the fiscal year, meaning money won’t have to be taken from the fiscal 2025-26 budget and can come from next year’s budget when it’s been accounted for.

The payments on the loan for the project should be about $3,000 a month.

“I think it’s a real win for the town,” Hodson said. “We basically took last year’s prices and locked them in for the next 25 years.”

The energy committee started advocating for the project because of a change in Vermont law. Previously, entities that produced excess electricity by solar power got a credit for it. The town garage solar project was grandfathered into this previous policy where the town gets credit for any extra power it generates from the garage solar panels.

It’s not free electricity, but it’s almost free. You have to pay about 2 cents for a power company to store any electricity that’s put on the power grid.

So, the rush for the project adding solar panels to get this energy efficiency project grandfathered into the earlier state policy.

“Unfortunately, a lot of the rest of the state won’t be able to take advantage of the kind of incentives we were able to,” Hodson said. “Even if we didn’t do anything within the deadlines, the energy committee wasn’t going to go away. We were going to keep knocking on the door, because it is the right thing to do over a longer term.”

And, he said, it’s the right thing to do for the environment.

Without the incentives, the cost would have to be borne by the taxpayers, but the way that Charlotte has done this, the cost shouldn’t impact taxpayers negatively.

“I’m just thrilled that the town kind of was able to work through such a difficult and complicated proposal. It wasn’t easy,” Hodson said.