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Asset manager says Gray could buy landfill solar array for about $655,000, projects $482,000 net benefit
Summary
An owner’s asset manager told the Gray Town Council workshop the landfill solar array’s fair-market purchase value is "approximately, $655,000," and that buying it now could yield about $482,000 net benefit over the remaining PPA term through 2045. Councilors pressed for follow-up on decommissioning costs and account enrollment.
Tanner Schmidt, the asset manager for the company that owns the Gray landfill solar array, told the council at a workshop that he estimated the town’s fair‑market purchase price for the array at "approximately, $655,000," based on production and remaining contract terms.
Schmidt explained how the array participates in Maine’s net energy billing program: the array exports generation to the grid, CMP measures the production and issues dollar credits that are applied to town accounts that subscribe to the array. He said roughly 20 Gray accounts currently receive credits and that the town has seen about $440,000 in net energy billing credit value from 2021–2025 while the town paid the array owner about $282,000 in PPA payments over that same period.
"So the net benefit to the town is approximately a $160,000," Schmidt said during the presentation. He also walked through assumptions behind a longer-term valuation that projects roughly $1,360,000 in remaining PPA payments the town would avoid if it owned the array, producing a modeled net benefit of about $482,000 if Gray purchases now and retains production through 2045.
Councilors questioned maintenance and equipment-replacement assumptions. Schmidt said historical average operations and maintenance is "roughly, $3,337 per year" and that his analysis included a conservative equipment-replacement allowance of roughly $137,000. He also said industry-standard degradation of output of about 0.5% per year was factored into projections.
Councilors asked staff to follow up on specific items Schmidt did not have on hand, including a firm estimate for panel removal or disposal costs at the end of the PPA, a definitive list of which town CMP accounts are enrolled in the array’s net energy billing allocation, and independent consultant options to review the financial analysis. The council and staff agreed to ask Schmidt and his firm for those details before any further action.
