Saddleback developers say proposed solar is key to resort's sustainability
Courtesy / Saddleback Mountain Ski Resort
The old 1960s-era Rangeley Double ski lift is removed at Saddleback Mountain Ski Resort in April. The lift is being replaced with a quad lift that has three times the capacty and is twice as fast.
Developers of Saddleback Mountain Ski Resort are looking to install a solar farm that would offset the high energy demand of enhanced snow-making and the high-speed quad lift that are part of the mountain's redevelopment.
Arctaris Impact Fund is proposing to extend the development district on the 6,400-acre site and install the solar array on 30 acres at the northern end of the property. The change to the development plan also includes a new mid-mountain lodge.
The development plan changes were reviewed by the Land Use Planning Commission Wednesday and will be scheduled for a public hearing, for which a date hasn't been set.
The solar energy is necessary to offset the cost of operations at the resort, which plans to open under its new ownership in December after being closed since 2015. The solar array, a new lodge, a new $7 million quad lift and enhanced snowmaking are part of an ongoing $38 million redevelopment project at the mountain. Arctaris bought the resort and surrounding land for $6.5 million in January.
The ski area itself is on 500 acres, and most of the land associated with it is in four unorganized plantations in a Planned Development District governed by the Land Use Planning Commission, which oversees the state's unorganized territories. The solar array would be in Dallas Plantation, to the east of Rangeley.
In the application for the solar array, Tom Federle, Arctaris counsel, said that energy costs have played a big part in Saddleback's "economic under-performance" in the past. An upgraded energy system is key to make the resort "a long-term viable operation and employer in the region," he said.
“Self-generating all of our electricity needs and selling excess electricity to third party end users is a powerful tool available to Saddleback to change the economic trajectory of the enterprise," he said. The array would be completed next year if approved.
New lift means more skiers
The array will help power a new ski lift that's replacing the old 1960s-era Rangeley double-lift, which was removed earlier this year, as well as the enhanced snow-making that's being installed on the mountain.
The new lodge will be built next to the detachable quad chairlift that was installed this year.
The lift will allow the resort to increase the amount of skiers using the mountain from 100,000 to the nearly 200,000 that is needed to make the resort sustainable, Federle told Mainebiz in February. Federle said Saddleback needs at least 180,000 to be economically viable.
Maine's largest ski area by attendance, Sunday River, attracts 550,000 visitors a year and the second-largest, Sugarloaf, attracts 400,000, according to the Mainebiz Book of Lists.
The Rangeley double chairlift had capacity for 750 skiers an hour and it took 11 minutes to get up the mountain. The new Doppelmayr high-speed detachable quad lift has capacity to take 2,400 skiers an hour up the mountain in four minutes.
Mark Berry, a member of the family that owned the resort from 2003 until Arctaris bought it, told Mainebiz earlier this year that replacing the lift was key to the mountain's economic sustainability. "We needed another 10,000 to 15,000 skier visits to make it work," he said.
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