By Katina Caraganis , kcaraganis@sentinelandenterprise.com
Sentinel and Enterprise News, October 8, 2013 – A Maryland-based company trying to bring a large-scale solar facility to property off Electric Avenue is selling its stake in the project to NuGen Capital.
EPG Solar and the Board of Selectmen executed a power-purchase agreement with the town earlier this summer but were waiting to sign a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, or PILOT, agreement.
The piece of property in question is owned by the Twin City Baptist Church and had been tied up in bankruptcy court. EPG was going to lease the property but was having trouble getting the land out of bankruptcy court.
The Rev. Erven Burke, pastor of Twin City Baptist, said in August that there was a lease agreement in place between the church and EPG Solar, but it has expired and no new lease has been executed.
The board had granted EPG an extension after the company failed to make the project commercially operable by its May 31 deadline. The extension called for the project to be built by the end of December.
NuGen Capital recently purchased the rights to a similar project on Chase Road by Florida-based MASS PV1.
NuGen plans to develop the Chase Road project as a municipal project, and the town would purchase its credits from that project. The Electric Avenue project would become a private, nonmunicipal entity.