As a major step towards accomplishing its sustainability goals, the City of Lebanon recently signed a contract with ReVision Energy to construct solar PV arrays on eight City properties.
The sites include City Hall, Kilton Library, the Landfill Recycling Center and Maintenance Garage, the DPW Administration and Maintenance Buildings on Dartmouth College Highway, the Police Station roof, a large ground-mounted array at the Wastewater Treatment Plant and the roof of a large shed at the same plant.
View the construction schedule.
The project is 818 kilowatts DC in size (726 kW AC) and will produce over 900,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity in the first year, or about 23% of the City’s total electricity usage. We estimate that it will reduce the municipality’s greenhouse gas emissions by roughly 1.1 million pounds a year.
The Solar Subcommittee of the Lebanon Energy Advisory Committee has been working on this project with the City Manager’s office, DPW, and Energy & Facilities Manager for over a year, and we are delighted to finally announce that the arrays will all be up and operating by the end of the year. LEAC members and staff who have been involved include assistant Mayor Clifton Below, City Manager Shaun Mulholland, LEAC Solar Subcommittee Chair Greg Ames, LEAC members Jon Chaffee and Woody Rothe, DPW staff Jim Donison and Jay Cairelli, consult Wayne Leonard, and Energy & Facilities Manager Tad Montgomery.
The financial structure for the project that the City has chosen is called a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). In order to capture the federal tax credit of 30% of total system cost, ReVision Energy will install the arrays, and impact investors will own the arrays for at least five years. After this time the City will have the option to purchase the arrays at a reduced fair market value. We expect that this project will save the City roughly $12,000 per year over the first five years, and $740,000 over 20 years.
The City would like to express its appreciation to Assistant Mayor Below and the project committee for the tremendous amount of time and expertise that they have contributed to this project.
Below are aerial views of the eight sites with the solar arrays depicted on them.
 City Hall |  Wastewater Plant |
Police Station |  Landfill Recycling Building |
Landfill Maintenance Building |  Kilton Public Library |
Public Works Garage |  Public Works Administration Building |