$50 million Nordic spa starts construction at historic Portland brownstone quarry
PORTLAND — Initial construction recently began on a $50
million Nordic spa, situated at the historic Brownstone Avenue Quarry View
in Portland.
The
"sanctuary" wellness center will sit in the midst
of “dramatic, brownstone rock formations,” according to Nick Cheveldave,
senior director of development at Canadian-based Pomeroy Lodging. It will
incorporate the unique, natural setting over a 6.3-acre campus.
Excavation crews were out on a hazy Monday morning, clearing
the site with the Portland bridge in the distance.
First Selectman Michael Pelton provided a progress
update on Facebook June 24 and again July 23.
The project should take 15 to 18 months to complete, he
wrote in June, calling it a "huge win for Portland."
He's excited to see movement, Pelton wrote on social media
July 23.
“They're finally getting started breaking ground in
earnest," he wrote. "They still have a lot of work to do, but they
have big plans and it's going to be beautiful when it's done."
Darlene Rice and Dean Soucy, former owners of the
property, sold
it to Pomeroy in early 2024.
Hartford-based Consigli Construction was chosen to execute
the project, Cheveldave noted.
Portland’s quarries “owe their existence to millions of
years of prehistoric sediments accumulating in the Connecticut River,” according to the town
website.
Features will include hot, warm and cold pools; saunas,
steam rooms, relaxation spaces, and a bistro serving locally sourced
ingredients, “all designed to complete the hydrotherapy circuit of hot, cold,
rest, repeat,” Cheveldave said.
Quarried as far back as the 17th century, the town website
said, Portland brownstone “proved soft enough to allow for carving and
polishing, making it one of the most desirable materials for gravestone markers
and building construction for nearly three centuries."
Portland supplied the sandstone for building projects from
New York to Boston to San Francisco in the 1850s, employing more than 1,500
people,
according to Connecticut Explored. More than 25 ships brought the
stone to the spots in the United States, Canada and England.
The property, adjacent to the Brownstown Adventure Sports Park at
161 Brownstone Ave., will also feature hydrotherapy and massage therapy.
“Given our location at the quarry overlooking the
Connecticut River, the views will indeed be spectacular,” Cheveldave said.
Initial site clearing and erosion control measures are
complete, and they are selecting rocks for landscape features, he said.
“As a Nordic spa immersed in nature, the natural beauty and
elements of the Brownstone Quarry helped shape our design decisions and are
certainly our biggest asset,” he added.
The design incorporates the “stunning natural
environment,” Cheveldave said.
“The experience we offer is inspired by Nordic wisdom,
embedded in the benefits of hydrotherapy,” he added, comparing the spa to
others owned by Pomeroy Lodging, such as the Kananaskis Nordic Spa in
Alberta, Canada; and Alyeska Nordic Spa in Alaska.
Apartment complex along the Connecticut River in Enfield gets approval
ENFIELD —
A new apartment
complex along the Connecticut River that includes several public
amenities is moving forward following the unanimous approval of the Planning
and Zoning Commission on Thursday.
Developers will be constructing 156 units at the abandoned
site along the river at 33 North River St. in an effort to revitalize
the riverfront.
Plans for phase one call for the construction of the
four-story apartment buildings, a walking trail that spans the entire property,
175 parking spaces, and landscaping.
Apartments will be a mix between studios, and one- and
two-bedroom units.
There will also be roughly 5,900 square feet of public
amenities, including landscaped areas, a public riverwalk, and seating.
Groundbreaking is expected in the first quarter of next
year, developers said.
Fourteen trees that were planned for the project will not be
planted due to site restrictions, but will rather be donated to the town to be
planted in Thompsonville, potentially along Main Street, developers said.
A lengthy discussion during a public hearing earlier this
month included several concerns from commissioners, mainly whether there would
be enough frontage and how snow removal would be handled.
The town attorney clarified that the easement and frontage
proposed in the developers' application is suitable, Town Planner Lauren
Whitten said.
Developers also said that snow would be hauled offsite
during storms that drop six inches of snow or more.
"Based on staff's review and analysis, we believe that
concerns related to this development have now been addressed," Whitten
said. "The proposed project meets or exceeds the requirements set forth in
the Thompsonville regulations.
Developers were awarded a $4 million brownfield grant from
the state Department of Economic and Community Development in December to clean
up contamination on the former power facility site.
During a public hearing earlier this month, some neighbors
were concerned about potential contamination leaking its way onto their
property during cleanup, but developers were able to put commissioners at ease
on Thursday.
Lewis Brown, founder and managing member of Honeycomb Real
Estate Partners, noted that his firm has built two developments in each
Hartford and New Haven exceeding $25 million, and both were constructed on
former brownfield sites.
Steve Caprio, director of development for Honeycomb, noted
that the state likely wouldn't have awarded the project the $4
million brownfield grant — the largest allocation in that round of funding
— if it were not for the developer's history of cleaning up contaminated
properties.
Several commissioners, along with Whitten, praised the
developers for thoroughly addressing concerns of theirs and residents, with
Whitten calling the developers "proactive and easy to work with."
No one from the public spoke during the extended public
hearing on Thursday, but several spoke in favor of the project during the
public hearing earlier this month, including neighbors abutting the site.
Cleanup of contaminated soil from Ponemah Mills continues
Daniel Drainville
Norwich — The state Department of Energy and Environmental
Protection will not say whether it will penalize the developer or contractors
involved with a $40 million project to renovate a section of the historic
Ponemah Mills into 148 apartments, after contaminated soil was removed from the
site and dumped in nearby towns.
"This remains an active enforcement matter," DEEP
spokesman James Fowler wrote in an email last week. "As this remains an
ongoing enforcement matter, we cannot comment on specific enforcement actions
at this stage."
OneKey LLC of New Jersey and its contractors continue to
work on a multi-phase project to renovate the former cotton mill complex on
Norwich Avenue into a mix of market-rate and affordable apartments and
amenities called the Lofts at Ponemah Mills. The larger mill building on the
site, which contains 237 apartments plus another 77 in a rear wing, has been
completed and is housing tenants.
Meanwhile, the second half of the renovation — which would
create another 148 units in the south mill building, along with a restaurant in
a smaller building to the west — is ongoing.
In March, DEEP halted soil removal from the site until it
could determine whether the excavated material was contaminated and where it
was being trucked. Uncas Health District Director Patrick McCormack has told
the city a OneKey representative at the site could not document where the
material was being stored on the property, where it was being taken and who
removed it.
In May, Phil Biondo, the project manager for the Ponemah
Mills project, told the city that excess soil, which was taken from the
southeastern portion of the property, had not been identified as being
contaminated in three studies OneKey had done. He also identified towns where
the soil had been taken and said that DEEP and OneKey were beginning to clean
up the sites where soil was deposited.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency has also worked
with the DEEP to ensure that contaminated fill material from the site is
addressed and remediated.
"(DEEP's) initial priority has been ensuring that
polluted fill removed from Ponemah Mills and deposited at other properties is
excavated and properly disposed of," Fowler wrote in an email July 23,
updating on the status of cleanup efforts.
Fowler said in the email that cleanup has been completed at
one site in Oakdale and two in Norwich.
"At affected sites, polluted fill is being excavated by
a licensed spill cleanup contractor, transported, and properly disposed of at
an approved facility," Fowler said. "Confirmatory testing is
conducted to ensure that all impacted material has been removed. In some cases,
groundwater monitoring or remediation may also be required depending on the
circumstances."
Fowler added that two other sites in Norwich will be cleaned
once the property owner grants access. Two other non-residential sites, in
Preston and Griswold, have not yet been cleaned, but he said OneKey has
reportedly hired a contractor to do so.
He said DEEP is not aware of any other locations where soil
was deposited.
He did not mention a site in Franklin, where town officials
have said they'd received a complaint that a pile of soil at a home
construction site looked contaminated. Franklin officials said they were told
by DEEP that the soil had come from the Ponemah site.
Fowler wrote that once cleanup at each property is
completed, DEEP will document the cleanup in a report. He said similarly, when
remediation at the Ponemah Mills site is completed, a final report will also be
prepared.
Since beginning its investigation, DEEP has not issued a
public update on the status of its investigation.
"Because this is an active enforcement matter, DEEP
must balance transparency with preserving its ability to enforce environmental
laws effectively," Fowler explained. "Some information cannot yet be
shared publicly in order to protect the integrity of the investigation and
compliance efforts."
The south mill project in 2020 received a $795,000 state
brownfields grant to fund cleanup efforts on the site, including soil
remediation.
Fowler wrote the state Department of Economic and Community
Development, which oversees the grant, has now "halted all grant-funded
work and will reevaluate after DEEP determines the matter is satisfactorily
resolved."
In April, after DEEP began its investigation and stopped
soil removal from the site, Norwich Community Development Corp. President and
Executive Director Kevin Brown said about half of the grant had already been
spent for asbestos remediation and sandblasting inside the South Mill.
OneKey representatives and Biondo could not be reached to
comment Monday.
State seeks multifamily housing proposals for Stamford train station property
The state is seeking plans for mixed-use developments on the
11-acre Stamford Transportation Center property as part of a plan to overhaul
the train station, which was built in the 1980s and renovated in the early
2000s.
“The current station, while heavily used, is nearing the end
of its useful life and requires major upgrades,” said Joe Cooper, a DOT
spokesman. “Rather than continuing piecemeal repairs, CTDOT seeks to replace
the station and related infrastructure.”
The Department of Transportation plans to put out a request
for proposals to developers in mid-August and expects to close the bidding
process in mid-December. It expects to choose a developer during the first
quarter of 2026.
“Beyond transit, the (Department of Transportation) aims to
create a vibrant, mixed-use district that offers opportunities to live, work,
shop and dine,” Cooper said.
He said the state agency prefers that the mixed-use
development include either multifamily residential with ground-floor retail or
a more diverse mix of commercial office space, hotels, retail or institutional
uses.
“While past planning assumed the station would remain in
place, (the Department of Transportation) now encourages proposals that explore
alternate station locations within the project site and consider how changes to
track and platform configurations could support future service growth,” he
said.
A month ago, the DOT
chose Gilbane Development Company and MURAL Real Estate Partners to create a
new transit-oriented, mixed-use community adjacent to New Haven’s
Union Station.
The department is also studying 18 state-owned parking lots
for potential transit-oriented development projects including sites in
Branford, Darien, Fairfield, Stratford, Wallingford, Waterbury, West Haven and
Wilton.
CT’s solar industry clouded by Trump administration policies
On the sunny first day of the mid-July heatwave, Will
Herchel and his team walked along the edge of a nearly 18-acre field in
Glastonbury three-quarters filled with solar panels. Even though the day was
already pushing 90 degrees by late morning, the panels couldn’t take advantage
of all that sunshine – yet.
That should happen in late September or early October when
all 6,840 panels are in place and able to generate nearly four megawatts of
power, estimated to be enough to run more than 775 average homes. The
installation, being built by Verogy — the West Hartford-based company Herchel
co-founded and now heads, will provide power to low- and moderate-income
homes, as well as to small businesses and municipal buildings, through a
concept known as a community solar or shared solar. Connecticut calls it shared
clean energy facilities.
Regardless of the name, the concept is designed to bring
clean energy — almost always solar power — to anyone who cannot install a
system on their own property. That generally mean renters, condo or apartment
owners, and people whose homes simply aren’t suited to solar due to lack of sun
or badly configured roof angles.
Community solar has had a balky rollout in Connecticut. It’s
taken years for the state to find the right model with parameters and financial
requirements that will have staying power.
But, just as it gains momentum here, that effort may be
about to hit a major roadblock — the Trump administration.
Bottom of Form
The tax-and-spending reconciliation bill President Donald J.
Trump signed into law on July 4 has the potential to slam the brakes on two of
the biggest and fastest-growing sources of renewable power in the U.S. — solar
and wind.
The legislation eliminates a valuable 30% federal tax credit
for owners of and investors in solar and wind systems. For Connecticut and the
rest of New England, the brunt of the pressure will be felt on solar.
“It’s difficult to understand why these technologies were
singled out in that way, other than it’s just a more political driven
decision,” Herchel said.
Up-front costs
Wind is still the top renewable power source in the
U.S. — but solar’s increase the last few years has pushed combined wind and solar beyond 17% of U.S. electricity
production, eclipsing coal. A recent
U.S. Energy Information Administration report shows solar poised to
surpass wind as the top renewable power source during the summer by next year.
Long term, both forms of power will remain much cheaper than
conventional sources. For starters, the fuel for the power — wind or solar — is
free. But there are fears many people — especially homeowners who want solar —
will find themselves priced out because the removal of the tax credit means
higher up-front costs and break-even times several years longer than they are
now.
The 30% tax credit for homeowners who purchase residential
rooftop solar will disappear on December 31 of this year. There will be no
gradual rollback, which is what Trump did his first term when he opted to scale
back tax credits over several years. The rate was down to 26% when he left
office.
The Biden administration restored the rate to 30%
retroactively with a 10-year lifespan, transitioning to a gradual rollback in
2033.
People who lease solar for their homes, and all forms of
commercial solar and wind projects have a longer runway before tax credits
expire. They must start construction by next July or be in service by the end
of 2027 in order to get the tax credit. For large commercial projects that’s a
tight time frame and on leased systems it is the company that owns the system
that gets the tax credit, not the homeowner. But homeowners will still face the
owner’s higher costs being passed on to them.
Since the budget bill became law, additional policies have
been unveiled that have solar developers like Herchel even more worried.
Three days after he signed the measure, Trump issued an executive order that appears likely to further
tighten the parameters of access to solar and wind even while the tax credit is
still operative.
The executive order seems designed to restore some
provisions of earlier iterations of the bill. Those provisions were more
restrictive and were jettisoned to ensure the bill would pass. One part of the
order essentially asks the Treasury Department to re-evaluate what it means for
a project to be in construction. The goal seems to be to redefine it in a way
that would make it harder for projects to meet the timing to qualify for tax
credits.
“I think the industry was in a position of relief that they
understood what the path forward was,” Herchel said of the original legislation
that removed the 30% tax credit.
His company only does medium size commercial and industrial
sector solar and has the slightly longer runway before the tax credit
disappears.
“The executive order threw a wrench in that whole process,”
he went on. The order gave the U.S. Department of the Treasury 45 days to take
action, so companies are stuck waiting. “You don’t know how to start
construction, and because of that, everyone is concerned and confused as to
which projects are going to qualify and which projects are not going to
qualify.”
The uncertainty of how, when or even if to start
construction is keeping Herchel and his investors up at night.
“The tough part for us is that, in our industry, the longest
part of our installation cycle is permitting and interconnection. We don’t
control those aspects,” Herchel said. The Glastonbury project, for example,
will take three years from concept to operation, with actual construction only
accounting for about seven months.
The uncertainty around the meaning “in construction” could
mean that contracted projects already in the production process could be thrown
into tax credit limbo. “Those projects essentially become non-viable until you
understand whether they’re going to qualify,” Herchel said.
“We don’t know exactly what the rules are, and so when you
don’t know what the rules are, you can’t appropriately navigate your business
and you can’t appropriately invest capital in those businesses,” he said.
“We’re all working very hard and diligently with third party counsel and other
advisors, accounting firms, to try to understand what’s actually going to
happen. But most of their experience is no longer relevant because no
individual executive administrative body has behaved in the way that we’re currently
experiencing.”
Proactively, Verogy last week asked Connecticut’s Public
Utilities Regulatory Authority, PURA, to take emergency action help ensure as
many solar projects as possible can beat the new tax credit clock.
Jeff Macel, co-founder and managing director of Lodestar
Energy, which focuses exclusively on community solar in about eight states,
including Connecticut, said he isn’t sleeping terribly well either. He points
out the executive order literally contradicts what’s now in statute.
“The legal advice we get is that that can’t happen, but the
practical advice is, ‘how are you going to work through that? Is that going to
get litigated?’” he said. “So it’s going to be a dog fight, I think, legally.”
He called Trump’s new clean energy policies “100%
politically motivated.”
“It’s a difficult time to do business because norms have
been thrown out the window and it’s hard to understand what is the status quo,”
he said. “I think we take a conservative position and trust lawyers who tell us
this is what it says, stick to your guns. And I think you have to.”
Other solar companies and their advocates take great pains
to paint the situation in the best light they can, wanting to project that
their industry is still valuable and affordable, even at a higher cost. And
they note the many policy changes the solar industry has navigated over the
years.
“They don’t call it the solar coaster for nothing in this
industry,” said Mike Trahan, executive director of the Connecticut Solar and
Storage Association, which represents the 50 to 75 solar companies actively
operating in the state at any given time and their 2,500 employees. He
characterized solar developers and installers as a resilient bunch, used to
dealing with disruption.
“It’s an uncomfortable place to be,” he admitted, also
referencing the recent policy controversies in the Connecticut legislature.
“We’re going to have to do what we did the last time the Trump administration
was pursuing changes with the tax credits. You have to find a place where you
can be successful. If they’re just going to continue to raise the bar for us,
we just have to jump higher.”
“Actively hostile”
Some fear Trump administration actions herald existential
threats to clean energy more broadly by encouraging a greater reliance on the
fossil fuels whose emissions have caused the climate change the planet is
already experiencing.
And, on the most basic level, there’s widespread sentiment
that the Trump policies will cause energy prices to go up, emissions to go up
and air to be dirtier. States, including Connecticut, will be hard-pressed to
meet their renewable energy and greenhouse gas emissions targets as a result.
Trump
has a long history as a notorious hater of wind power, with solar power not far
behind. He
reiterated that during his recent trip to Scotland.
During the 2024 presidential campaign, he infamously told
a group of fossil fuel industry executives gathered at Mar-a-Lago that
if they donated $1 billion to his campaign he would cut their taxes and
regulatory hurdles in return. Though he did not get that much money from them,
he has indeed
introduced multiple policies and executive orders to increase fossil fuel
extraction and use. even as most other nations look to switch away from
such reliance to greater use of renewables.
Another part of the July 7 executive order would impose
stricter rules on products from “foreign entities of concern.” While many
components for solar have ties to China — something that has helped to
dramatically reduce the cost of systems in recent years — solar panels made in
the U.S. are more readily available than they had been, largely due to Biden
administration policies that incentivized solar panel manufacturing here.
“At some point our industry does need to stand on its own
two legs,” said Sam Schneider, co-founder and chief executive officer of
Earthlight Solar and Energy Solutions, which is based in Ellington.
He traveled to Washington, D.C. twice to lobby for better
terms in the original legislation. “I can’t say that I’m just jumping for joy,
but I will say that it’s much better than where we were, and it gives us
runway, and it gives us time.”
In some cases anyway.
Earthlight’s residential solar work is about half of their
solar business. About 70% of that is purchased systems, which means the tax
credit runs out in less than six months, though Schneider said he still has the
capacity to complete projects by then. The rest of the residential solar, which
is leased systems, as well as all his commercial work, do have the longer time
frame.
“I believe that people are still going to pursue ownership
of solar in residential; I one hundred percent believe that,” Schneider said.
“It’s not ideal, but it is doable.”
But he faces other tax credit deadlines for related work his
company does. The law also ends federal tax credits at the end of this year for
a host of energy-saving functions, including the purchase of heat pumps, home
and business energy efficiency upgrades, and energy audits. Tax credits for
energy efficiency measures in new construction end in June 2026.
Those cutbacks essentially eliminate most other means home
and business owners have to reduce their energy bills at a lower upfront cost.
It may prove especially troublesome for the low- and moderate-income sector,
which often turns to those solutions.
In Connecticut that sector also faces the solar tax credit
deadlines in a program specifically designed for them. For 10 years, PosiGen has provided leased
solar systems to qualifying low- and moderate-income Connecticut
residents — more than 7,000 systems so far.
“This bill is going to have really dramatic consequences for
the most vulnerable across Connecticut, generally,” said Kyle Wallace,
PosiGen’s vice president of public policy and government affairs and leader of
the company’s community impact team.
Leased systems do benefit from the longer deadline, but
after that, the increased price likely will be passed along to consumers,
Wallace said.
“I think even beyond this, we’re just continuing to see an
administration that is just actively hostile to renewables, and we had hoped
that they would be more indifferent and not actively hostile,” he said.
“They’re going to try every way they can though to hurt renewables.”
Ten days after the July 7 executive order, the U.S.
Department of the Interior announced solar and wind projects on federal
property would now require personal approval from Secretary Doug Burgum across 69 categories of
permitting.
The move is widely seen as a way to slow down approvals,
possibly causing them to miss the new deadlines. Its most direct impact on
Connecticut and New England would be on offshore wind projects, which are in
federal lease areas. But it could have a bearing on federal approvals needed
for projects that are not on federal property.
It all worries Harry Godfrey, a managing director at
Advanced Energy United who heads up the advocacy group’s federal engagement
efforts. He and others note that there is existing statutory language on what
constitutes a project being in construction. The Treasury Department could come
up with a conflicting standard.
But the notion of predicating a tax credit on an in-service
date for a project is new. Projects face unforeseen delays for all kinds of
legitimate reasons. The fear is that such a regulation will open the door to
governmental mischief designed to deliberately slow down projects to make them
less economically worthwhile and therefore more likely to be killed.
“You kill projects in the present through uncertainty in the
future and a ‘placed-in-service’ deadline, like that is the thing that cuts the
knees out from under projects,” Godfrey said. “That’s made all the worse if
those parties are operating in bad faith — intentionally working to kill a
project through delay. Between the executive order and recent actions by the
Interior Department, that possibility is coming into more acute focus.”
Stability
Trump and Republican operatives, especially those who
developed the energy and climate chapters of Project 2025, have long decried
solar and wind power as expensive and destabilizing for the electric grid
because they cannot operate fully all the time. Solar, for instance, cannot
provide power at night. Storage will eventually change that dynamic.
But even without storage, solar has actually become a key
stabilizing factor for the six-state New England grid. Matt Kakley, a spokesman
for grid operator ISO New England, said there’s thousands of megawatts of solar
in New England equal to about twice the region’s nuclear fleet.
To meet consumer demand, he said, solar is playing an
increasingly important role.
“We really count on it every day,” Kakley said. “When we are
putting together our daily forecast in our schedule we’re looking at what we
expect that solar to do, and we’re counting on it showing up.”
In winter, when heat and electricity compete for the same
natural gas supply, solar during the day helps stretch daytime heating
supplies. On hot summer days, solar has prevented power crunches when air
conditioning use is high.
The ISO recently reported that the kind of solar that might
be on a residential roof —called behind-the-meter solar — reduced power consumption by 5% in 2024.
During a recent heat wave when power use peaked on June
24 to its highest level in a dozen years and some power plants were
unavailable, solar was one factor that helped stabilize the situation. The ISO
noted at the time that without behind-the-meter solar, demand would have peaked three
hours earlier and more than 2,000 megawatts higher than it did. It also
noted that at that time, non-carbon-emitting resources including all solar,
wind, nuclear, hydro and battery storage together provided a up to 40% of the
energy consumed in the region.
The ISO is predicting demand on the grid will start to rise
— 35% over the next 20 years — after years of
staying relatively flat and even declining. Whether solar deployment will grow
with demand and continue to take the edge off it in the face of the changes
that are coming remains to be seen.
There are a few large New England offshore wind projects
under construction that will provide large swaths of power in another few years
as long as the administration doesn’t stop them. And a large project for
transmission of onshore wind from Maine to the rest of the region is in an
early planning stage.
But now it’s possible the end of tax credits for heat pumps
and electric vehicles may dampen demand. Data center growth, a big energy eater
that has caused concern in other parts of the country, has not been a factor in
this region.
There’s also a question of whether the solar industry here
will contract.
Ken Gillingham, an energy and environmental economist at
Yale specializing in renewable energy and efficiency, thinks the residential,
small-scale solar industry in Connecticut, New York and Massachusetts will
shrink.
“I don’t think it’s going to disappear, but it’s likely that
some of the smaller, weaker players are not going to be able to make it, and
that means job losses,” he said. “We have this combination of losing the tax
credits and higher costs, and you put those together, and suddenly solar is
less affordable. A worst case scenario — it’s going to become a very, very
small market, almost back down to a niche market like it was 20 years ago.”
Despite Trump’s contention to the contrary which he
reiterated again in the July 7 executive order, solar power — grid-scale
solar in particular — is one of the least expensive energy sources. A United Nations report unveiled by Secretary General Antonio
Guterres last week showed onshore wind, solar and hydropower to be the
three least expensive sources of power. Solar is 41% cheaper than fossil fuels
and onshore wind is 59% cheaper. Both, the report said, are also the fastest to
build.
In 2024, the report said, renewables made up 92.5% of all
new electricity capacity additions. And it predicted that solar and wind
power generation would surpass nuclear power next year and, “In 2029, solar PV
electricity generation is expected to surpass hydropower to become the largest
single renewable power source, and wind will surpass hydropower in 2030.”
Stepping up
The mantra has been that the states need to step up to fill
the void left by Trump administration policies — something they did in the
energy and environment sectors during Trump’s first term pullbacks. With so
many voids to fill this time around, it’s unclear how that might play out.
In the meantime, the emergency filing Verogy’s Herchel made with PURA asks
that the annual cap on community solar and non-residential solar projects be
lifted to allow more projects to capture the tax credit before it expires.
“If PURA does not take this action, the likelihood that
projects participating in the program will be eligible for the federal tax
credits will significantly deteriorate,” Herchel said. “If participating
projects cannot avail themselves of the federal tax credits, then the cost of
energy required for these projects will dramatically increase. This premium
would create a completely unnecessary cost for Connecticut ratepayers.”
PURA did not respond to a request for comment.
He and others have pointed to what Massachusetts put into
motion even before the Trump plan had fully passed Congress. On June 20, that
state updated its solar energy incentive program — SMART — via emergency
regulation to expedite their process for approving projects. Noting that the
Clean Energy Buyers Association estimates household electricity costs will
increase 6% as a result of the reconciliation package, Massachusetts Energy and
Environmental Affairs Secretary Rebecca Tepper said: “President Trump and
Congressional Republicans are taking us backward.”
The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental
Protection is opting for a more measured approach, with official outreach to
developers and other energy stakeholders this month to review new state
and federal laws and to gauge their specific challenges. The point, said DEEP
Commissioner Katie Dykes, is “so we can make sure that the steps that the state
takes are targeted and effective, especially given the very short time that
we’re working in.”
Dykes said DEEP is considering whether to initiate an
expedited zero-carbon renewable solicitation for grid scale resources that
could qualify for the tax credit if companies can move fast enough.
“We’re making sure that we’re engaging with the developers
so that we’re not doing it in a vacuum, and that the steps that we are taking
are aligned with what they need,” she said. To that end, DEEP issued a request
for information last week to gauge developer interest with a speedy one-week
turnaround.
Solar companies and advocates suggest that in the immediate
term, the state find ways to speed up permitting and streamline other processes
to get as much solar in the pipeline before timing restraints kick in. PURA is
already looking at how to update the existing solar programs in Connecticut. A
PURA spokesperson said that the federal changes could be part of what they
consider.
Trahan, of the Solar and Storage Association, said the
situation will require the legislature to step up, in addition to PURA, and
reconsider both the restrictions the state has placed on solar over the years
and the costs they’re willing to assume for things like labor and grid
interconnections.
“The question is going to be, how badly do we want to have a
solar industry here?” he said. “If we want one, we’re going to have to make
some significant changes in the cost to develop solar.”
Dykes agreed money will be an issue – just as the state is
trying to lower energy costs. “There’s going to be some tough questions ahead
about how much of the federal tax credit revenue could be offset or made up by
higher levels of funding from complementary state programs. That’s a difficult
trade off,” she said. “Those will be important things to try to balance.”
Wallace at PosiGen said it would be more important than ever
for states and solar businesses to make changes, both short- and long-term, as
they face pressures from tariffs, problematic supply chains and high interest
rates, in addition to the blow of losing the tax credit so rapidly. Even before
the tax credit for his lease customers ends, they might find they are saving
only 10% or 15% with their system instead of the usual 20%.
“We need to use the time we have now to find ways to lower
costs, to be more efficient, to be able to better serve low-income
communities,” he said. “We essentially need to increase the value that’s going
to consumers now so that when the tax credit goes away and maybe prices have to
increase, there’s enough of a buffer where it’s still a really compelling
product.”
At Lodestar, Jeff Macel is already gaming out future plans
through the lens of the company’s development pipeline, projects, and their
drop-dead date of December 31, 2027.
“We’ve said, ‘okay, let’s work backwards from those dates.
What projects can be built by then? We need to make sure we procure labor. We
need to make sure we procure equipment. We need to make sure that we have
utilities signed up to place them in service,’” he said. “So we’ve started that
process internally to rank order our projects and say we can get these built by
the date. And those are the sacred projects. Those are the ones we are focused
on driving to the finish line.”
So far, companies that specialize in residential purchased
systems, which face a much earlier loss of the tax credit, do not seem inclined
to pivot to leased systems, which have the longer runway, though statewide data
from PURA shows that shift has been happening on its own over the last few
years.
“The amount of red tape involved with some of the stuff is
cumbersome. So if I can do it without doing that, that would be my primary way
to move forward,” said James LaPorta, owner of Litchfield Hills Solar, which
only provides purchased systems and is booked through the end of the year. “My
bigger concern is how it’s going to affect the whole industry.”
At Earthlight, Schneider said he doesn’t plan to shift the
focus of his residential work, which has been mostly purchased systems. “I’m
not looking for a doom and gloom here. Our industry has been through a lot over
the last 15 years,” he said. “If our industry goes into a small downturn or
even a large one, I’m ready for it.”
Herchel at Verogy said his first task is to shore up the
immediate pipeline to ensure the viability of the projects underway before
passage of the act. Then he will focus on the individual portfolio projects
that could be completed before December 31, 2027.
“That’s kind of our narrow, immediate window for action,” he
said. “We do believe, at least as we sit here today, there is a viable path for
solar as a technology even without the current [tax credit] infrastructure;
albeit it’s going to require a higher revenue stream to support it.”