Pappas, Waring tour Center Conway solar array

On a sunny blue-skied morning Thursday, U.S. Rep Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) joined Conway selectmen chair David Weathers, Selectman John Colbath and Town Engineer/Deputy Town Manager Paul Degli Angeli on a tour of the Aligned Capital Solar Array on the Morrill Tree Farm property at 1393 East Main St. in Center Conway.

Leading the tour was Sarah Waring, U.S. Department of Agriculture State Director for Rural Development in Vermont and New Hampshire.

Also on hand were representatives from Clean Energy New Hampshire and the offices of U.S. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Maggie Hassan (D- N.H.).

The Center Conway solar array stop was part of a tour of USDA projects in Carroll County, with other stops including a tour of the Snow Bridge Project in Effingham and the Tamworth Transfer Station (see related story), recipients of USDA Communities Facilities Disaster Relief grants.

The tour according to USDA officials was to “highlight climate-smart infrastructure in the Granite State’s First Congressional District.”

“The solar array in Conway is a prime example of a community, private business and the federal government working together to improve the lives of Granite Staters,” said Pappas. “This kind of federal support from USDA Rural Development is helping lower costs for businesses and producing more clean, homegrown energy. I was grateful for the chance to see the project firsthand and meet with USDA Rural Development State Director Sarah Waring, community leaders and stakeholders to learn more this project and the important work USDA Rural Development is doing in New Hampshire. I remain committed to supporting these kinds of programs that lower costs and invest in our rural infrastructure.”

“Today’s tour demonstrates the multi-faceted approach we must take as we protect the environment and create jobs,” said Waring. “Our work in clean energy is often associated with the Real Energy for America Program, but the visits today with Congressman Pappas and our partners show different programs playing key roles in reducing our reliance on traditional energy resources — and in creative ways.

With electric infrastructure lending, she said that the USDA can help businesses reduce power costs while producing clean energy and putting it back on the grid.

In a press release furnished by the USDA, the USDA noted that the Center Conway solar array was built by Aligned Solar Partners through the USDA Electric Infrastructure Loan Program and will benefit New Hampshire residents and Stonyfield Organic in Londonderry through the USDA Electric Infrastructure Loan Program.

According to Conway Town Hall’s Jackie White, a building permit for the project was issued to ISun Energy of Williston, Vt., on Sept. 3, 2021.

The solar panels are set in a 7-acre cleared field within the tree farm owned by the Morrill Family Trust. Members of the trust are Stephen and Olga Morrill, David Bruce Morrill, Bradford and Margaret Morrill, and Gary and Caroline B Follmer.

Aligned leases the site from the Morrill Family Trust and provided the capital, according to project manager Brian Parker in a phone interview Thursday afternoon.

“It came online in December of 2021,” said Parker. “It’s a small but typical 1-megawatt site.”

An unrelated cell phone tower is also located on the site, which is reached by a logging road from East Main Street in Center Conway, adjacent to Ceramco.

According to USDA officials, Aligned Solar is teaming up with Eversource to provide the Stonyfield Farm processing facility in Londonderry through a $15.2 million Electric Infrastructure Loan.

The Conway installation is one of four in New Hampshire under the funding, with two in Nashua and another rin Loudon.

An array in Maine will work through ReVision Energy to power five public schools in the Pine Tree State.

According to the USDA, Stonyfield will benefit from a “significant reduction in power costs” while supporting clean energy generation for rural customers.

The project is anticipated to produce 7,098,352 kilowatt hours of clean energy annually, according to the USDA.

In a separate matter related to solar, DegliAngeli noted after the tour that selectmen have signed a letter of intent with Kearsarge Energy LLC of Boston for installing solar at the old landfill. As a multi-year contract, that would have to go before voters, with the intent to have it on the warrant for the 2024 town meeting, he said.

Concerning the Snow Road Bridge in Effingham, their second stop, Pappas and Waring said structural improvements and reinforcements gave residents access to the recycling and solid-waste transfer station after the bridges culverts were regularly “overtopped” from storm water, causing serious erosion.

According to the press release, instead of using conventional construction techniques and materials, Effingham used a $250,000 in USDA Community Facilities Disaster Relief grant to secure the services of Hansen Bridge, a Springfield firm that produces and builds municipal spans using U.S.-sources steel and laminated lumber.