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Workers install massive solar power arrays above the student parking lot at Fairfield Ludlowe High School in Fairfield, Conn. on Thursday, August 10, 2017. In Stamford, the Board of Representatives is looking into how it could make solar canopies a standard feature in at least some parking lots.
Workers install massive solar power arrays above the student parking lot at Fairfield Ludlowe High School in Fairfield, Conn. on Thursday, August 10, 2017. In Stamford, the Board of Representatives is looking into how it could make solar canopies a standard feature in at least some parking lots.
Patrick Lupinacci, of All Electric in West Haven, works on a massive solar power installation project at Fairfield Ludlowe High School in Fairfield, Conn. on Thursday, August 10, 2017. In Stamford, the Board of Representatives is looking into how it could make solar canopies a standard feature in at least some parking lots.
Workers install massive solar power arrays above the student parking lot at Fairfield Ludlowe High School in Fairfield, Conn. on Thursday, August 10, 2017. In Stamford, the Board of Representatives is looking into how it could make solar canopies a standard feature in at least some parking lots.
STAMFORD — Green initiatives are taking root in Stamford.
In April, the Board of Representatives passed a resolution declaring a climate emergency and calling for the city to become carbon neutral.
The month before, the city began the process of hiring a consultant to analyze the costs and benefits of expanding existing solar energy systems at Strawberry Hill and Rogers International schools and installing arrays at Westover Magnet and Stamford High schools plus a city vehicle maintenance facility on Magee Avenue, according to a document seeking bids.
Now, the Board of Representatives is looking into how it could make solar canopies a standard feature in at least some parking lots in Stamford.
And Director of Operations Matthew Quinones told board members that the city plans to install a director of facilities and sustainability as part of a restructuring of the Office of Operations.
During a Legislative and Rules Committee meeting this week, Rep. Jonathan Jacobson, D-12, said he wanted to find out whether it was possible for the city to require developers to install solar canopies — which hold up solar panels while shading cars — in new large parking lots.
“It’s a very dense question,” Jacobson said. “There’s a lot of legal issues associated with it. Does the Board of Representatives have the power to do this in the first place? Is this a Zoning Board issue? Can the Board of Representatives impose a requirement on private entities to do this? Can the Board of Representatives impose a requirement on public entities to do this?”
He suggested that the city should at least consider incorporating solar canopies into school construction projects.
Doug Dalena, the city’s director of legal affairs, agreed that it was a complex idea to tackle and would require officials to do more research.
Faced with some kind of zoning requirement that all large parking lots have solar canopies, developers would “have to know that they could get approval through (state) regulations governing interconnection to the grid and approval of a contract with Eversource,” Dalena said.
“Because if they can’t interconnect into the grid through existing regulations and applications, then they’re forced to build something that really has no use, other than perhaps on-site battery power,” he said. “I can’t tell you that (developers) can’t do that. But that’s the research that we would have to do.”
Another question is whether the Zoning Board even has the power to set such a requirement, Dalena said.
It would be less complicated, he said, for the Board of Representatives to establish a requirement for public projects. The board could, for instance, block the city from spending money on a public project unless it has a renewable energy component.
“That may come with significant cost,” Dalena said. But for some projects, a power purchase agreement could be an option, he said.
Fairfield, for example, has used power purchase agreements for projects like the installation of solar carports at several public schools. A private company covered the costs of installing the structures, which include outlets for electric vehicles. The town, meanwhile, pays a fixed rate for the power generated by the solar panels.
Stamford’s Legislative and Rules Committee decided to discuss the issue again at a later time.
On the new position, Quinones said he is looking to split the city’s parks and facilities department and merge parks with a now-separate recreation division. At the same time, he wants to add sustainability projects to the facilities department’s purview, he said.
“This budget-(neutral) reorganization allows us to (capitalize) on existing investments while pursuing new solutions to sustainable outcomes such as the one you’ve proposed,” Quinones told Jacobson in an email to the city representative and the co-chairs of the Legislative and Rules Committee.
The director of facilities and sustainability position will replace an existing role called operations manager, Quinones told The Stamford Advocate.
When she was running for mayor, Caroline Simmons said she would hire a director of sustainability if elected.
“This position would serve the practical need for an expert to oversee the implementation of sustainability projects,” Simmons said as a candidate. “I would task this new director with two initial priorities: replacing our vehicle fleet with electric vehicles where possible, as well as identifying and installing solar panels on municipal buildings wherever possible.”
Brianna Gurciullo covers local government and politics for the Stamford Advocate. A Meriden native, Brianna came to the Advocate after four years at POLITICO, where she wrote about federal transportation policy. She is always looking for a dog or cat to befriend when she is not working -- and sometimes when she is working, as evidenced by her photo.