By Dakota Antelman — [email protected]
A long-awaited solar panel overhaul is underway at the former town landfill.
In Concord’s broader push for green energy, a rooftop panel project at the middle school has hit delays. Other possible projects remain on the shelf.
“Solar is popular,” Select Board member Dean Banfield said earlier this year.
When it comes to turning that popularity into actual installations, supporters see room for improvement.
Banfield, who chaired Concord’s Solar Implementation Task Force, has said that the town could miss a goal to have 20 megawatts of solar capacity on municipal land by 2030.
The School Committee discussed middle school solar panels on October 7 but made no decision on the matter and didn’t take a vote.
For Climate Action Committee Chair Brad Dye, the process has been a lesson in what pitfalls to avoid.
“We just need to learn from this experience and not make the same blunder a second time,” Dye said.
Crews have been busy recently working on a long-awaited solar overhaul at the former town landfill. Photo: Carl Calabria/The Concord Bridge
Tale of two sites
The landfill solar site powered up in 2014.
Crews finished removing panels in recent weeks and plan to replace them with a larger, approximately 4.5 mW setup capable of powering nearly 780 homes, according to estimates from the Solar Energy Industries Association.
The project is set to more than double the site’s capacity. New panels should be ready by the end of January 2027, Town Manager Kerry Lafleur said.
The site will include a battery system to store excess electricity during the day and release it as needed.
Select Board members celebrated landfill progress as the project moved through town permitting.
On middle school solar, Light Board members voiced frustration as installation lagged. Member Brian Foulds said last fall that the schools weren’t being “a faithful partner.”
The Ellen Garrison Building at Concord Middle School opened in February 2025. Although panels have remained a consistent part of the CMS conversation, they weren’t officially part of the main construction project.
Rooftop solar came back before the School Committee on September 23. Administrators and committee members say they want panels. They also wanted to “dot our i’s [and] cross our t’s,” as K-8 committee Chair Sandeep Pisharody put it. He did not respond to follow-up questions before press time.
Officials’ concerns included protecting the roof warranty.
Schools Superintendent Laurie Hunter told The Bridge ahead of the School Committee’s latest meeting that officials “are pleased to continue to work with” the Concord Municipal Light Plant, which is part of the rooftop solar initiative.
“We remain committed to seeing the installation occur and are working to finalize an agreement that would facilitate our shared goal,” she said through a spokesperson.
Pisharody didn’t answer follow-up questions before press time.
The Ellen Garrison Building at Concord Middle School, without planned rooftop solar panels, welcomed students back to class this fall. Photo: Dakota Antelman/The Concord Bridge
Other measures
Town Meeting has approved articles related to solar expansion and other sustainability topics over the years.
“Every time we have the opportunity to vote for the environment, we do,” Dye said.
The Solar Implementation Task Force issued its findings in 2024 with over a dozen recommendations to boost solar energy.
Banfield led the latest charge as a private citizen this spring. He won nearly unanimous support at Town Meeting for a resolution asking the Select Board to adopt a rooftop solar requirement for new town and K-8 school buildings.
Installing panels can be pricey, developer Dan Gainsboro told The Bridge. He supports requiring them on municipal buildings anyway.
“If you make it a requirement, people figure out how to get past it,” he said.
Others have pushed back, with Select Board member Cameron McKennitt calling the proposal “unnecessary” and “bureaucratic” ahead of 2026 Town Meeting.
Public Works Commission member Sven Weber said he’s glad Banfield modified his request from a town bylaw to a policy, which can be more flexible. “The big question” is who would maintain solar panels on new town roofs, he told The Bridge this month.
Banfield, now a Select Board member, brought a draft policy to the board’s October 5 meeting.
The policy automatically excludes certain small buildings, and the Select Board can grant additional exceptions. The board approved the new measure.
Select Board member Dean Banfield has long advocated solar power expansion in Concord. Photo: Dakota Antelman/The Concord Bridge
‘Thoreau would want solar’
Concord is considering possible new public safety and public works facilities that could support solar panels.
Banfield recently highlighted an array at the former W.R. Grace Superfund site near the Acton border. Equipment there is failing, he told The Bridge, and the site is due for an overhaul that could mirror the landfill revamp.
Resident Edie Lipinski has been interested in green home technology and guesses one famous Concordian might appreciate what’s happening at the landfill.
“Henry David Thoreau would want solar panels,” she said.
Trace Salzbrenner contributed reporting.
Massport has proposed placing solar panels on a partially cleared tract in Concord as part of a larger green energy push. Photo: Dakota Antelman/The Concord Bridge
Massport eyes solar along Hanscom’s Concord flank
Rows of solar panels could be coming to a field off Old Bedford Road near Hanscom Field.
Massport, which operates Hanscom, has proposed the project as part of a larger “net-zero” push. This site and another off Virginia Road in Lincoln, near the Concord border, could provide up to 4.5 megawatts of capacity.
Officials brought plans to the Hanscom Field Advisory Commission this summer. Asked about safety concerns with panels near runways, consultant Rob Hoeg said planners will also work closely with federal regulators.
“Massachusetts definitely needs more green energy,” HFAC’s Christopher Eliot said.
Panels either installed or under construction at Hanscom combine to provide roughly 0.5 mW of capacity, consultant Jenna Ide said.
The proposed project could connect either to Concord Municipal Light Plant or to Eversource equipment and send power directly into the grid.
Officials could start design and permitting work at Hanscom in December, Ide said. Systems would have to come online by the end of 2029 to take advantage of sunsetting tax credits, she said.
Hanscom discussions come as Concord manages a series of solar projects on municipal land.
A public trail cuts across the Massport land off Old Bedford Road that’s being eyed for solar development.
Massport spokesperson Jennifer Mehigan didn’t respond by press time to Bridge questions seeking an update on solar planning.
— Dakota Antelman
