Westbrook parcel to house solar array for Portland apartment complex
Photo / Peter Van Allen
Wishcamper's 60-unit North School Apartment complex at 248 Congress St. in Portland. A 598-panel solar array at the Westbrook Heights Business Park is expected to supply most of the electricity used by the complex.
Courtesy / Jordan Betts,Wishcamper Cos.
The 3.43-acre lot at the Westbrook Heights Business Park that will house the 598-panel solar array.
WESTBROOK — The Wishcamper Cos., a Portland-based firm specializing in development of affordable housing projects in Maine and across the country, is building its first solar energy array in the state and hopes to expand in the future.
The array will go on the 3.43-acre Lot 3 in Westbrook Heights Business Park. In a deal that closed Sept. 30, Wishcamper, under the name Icarian Associates LLC, purchased the lot from the city of Westbrook for $150,000. Tony McDonald of the CBRE|The Boulos Company represented the buyer and Greg Hastings of NAI The Dunham Group represented the seller.
The schedule called for ReVision Energy to break ground in October, with completion by the end of the year. The 200-kilowatt array comprises 598 ground-mounted photovoltaic panels and is expected to supply most of the electricity used in Wishcamper’s North School Apartments, a 60-unit complex at 248 Congress St. in Portland, said Wishcamper’s Vice President of Asset Management Jordan Betts.
The array is expected to produce 276,000 kWh of power in the first year, which is about 95% of the 290,000 kWh used at the complex on an annual basis. Power will be sold to the grid and applied toward the energy usage at the apartment complex.
The company has one previous solar project and its construction is just finishing up — a smaller, 100-kilowatt array in Haverhill, Mass., which offsets energy costs for a low-income housing project there. Betts said Wishcamper and its affiliate, Wishrock — also developing and investing in affordable housing nationwide — are constantly on the lookout for additional ways to lower utility costs throughout their portfolio. Other initiatives include low-hanging fruit such as swapping in LED lighting and low-flow plumbing.
McDonald said criteria for the site included flat ground with little obstruction such as trees, buildings and hills as well as size and solar exposure. McDonald looked at a couple of dozen sites for the client, and presented about a half dozen, but this one was clearly the best, he said. Plus, the site had little groundcover and was pretty much ready to go.
“And Westbrook has been very helpful, working with us to get this project expedited,” Betts added.
An exact figure wasn’t available, but Betts said the project is expected to cost over $500,000. Not all of the land is needed for the array, so the company hopes to expand the project at some point.
“We’re looking forward to the opportunity to install more solar for our other apartment complexes in Maine,” said Betts.
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