New financier sought for Swampscott solar projects

SWAMPSCOTT – The town is seeking a new financier for the middle and high school solar project after a recent court ruling made the project unprofitable for ReGeneration Finance, Town Administrator Andrew Maylor said Wednesday. That ruling eliminated the minimum price of renewable-energy credits.”We are looking for a different partner that would gain from the credits,” Maylor said. He noted that all three entities involved – the Town of Swampscott, contractor and industrial technology company Johnson Controls Inc. and ReGeneration Finance – are collaborating on the search. “Hopefully the partner will be found; we think that will happen.”ReGeneration Finance Spokesperson Nick Stoker would not confirm whether the company was still financing the project or helping to find another financier.”I cannot speak about projects in development,” Stoker said. “We are still very much involved in the project and cannot go into any more detail. We still expect construction to begin soon.”A representative from Johnson Controls did not immediately respond to inquiries.The project includes retrofitting the high school roof with 1,666 photovoltaic panels (solar panels that convert light energy to power) and the middle school roof with 294 panels in order to reduce school energy costs.According to Maylor, Johnson will construct, “own” and maintain the panels and, in return, the town will let Johnson use the roofs and buy the power produced from the panels at a specific, below-market rate for 20 years. ReGeneration would have financed the project by selling the resulting renewable energy credits, he added.But the financier’s negotiations over the value of those credits halted construction in mid-July and coordinating the schools’ schedule with the construction required a deadline of Aug. 1 to resolve the negotiations, as the Item previously reported.Now the town is seeking a new buyer for the credits.”We are looking at alternative financiers; other companies that aren’t compromised by this (court-ordered) change, for example, energy companies? or a local player who can maneuver through the Massachusetts market,” Maylor said.He also said that the only negative financial impact to the town would be that it wouldn’t get its reduced-cost energy as soon as planned.”This is not an out-of-pocket thing for the town,” he said. “Both (Johnson Controls and I) feel confident that the project will get done by the end of the year.”