GREENE — City residents will once again be asked to decide whether to accept a major solar panel project that planners say would bring money and jobs to the city.

Swift Current Energy’s so-called Greene Apple Solar Project would spend about $200 million to install solar panels on 600 acres that would connect to Maine’s central electric grid system, with the potential to power the equivalent of 30,500 Maine homes per year.

Fast currentin its project documentation, lists the benefits the city would reap if voters ultimately accept the plan. For starters, the Greene Apple project would result in payments totaling millions of dollars in new revenue for the city over the project’s 20- to 30-year lifespan.

On Nov. 18, Greene voters will be asked to vote on an amendment to the city’s existing solar ordinance that would limit the size of any solar system in the city to 15 acres and impose other restrictions on the size and l location of solar panels. .

The Greene Planning Board initiated the proposed amendment in response to strong opposition to the latest plan among residents.

For Swift Current, the success of this amendment would be a game-changer.

“If the proposed amendment to the Solar Ordinance is adopted, the Greene Apple Solar Project will not be constructed,” according to project documentation, “and the City and its residents will lose the substantial benefits described above.”

Project planners expect to pay more than $2 million to the city in the first year of operation, and about $1 million each year after that. The city’s current fiscal budget is approximately $2 million.

Thopse planners say the solar array would provide the city with “a significant influx of new revenue that the city could dedicate to its general fund without requiring new municipal services.”

Massachusetts-based Swift Current also expects the plan to generate 150 full-time jobs during construction and three to five full-time jobs once the project is operational. The project would also improve several municipal roads, including Coburn Road and two private roads, North Hills Ridge and North Ridge Road.

A community benefits fund would bring an additional $150,000 a year to the city, according to project documentation.

Additionally, according to planners, “the project will provide clean, on-peak renewable energy to the State of Maine at a cost-effective and reliable price, allowing Maine to reduce its carbon emissions.”

The solar panel would be placed on private property; large tracts owned by George Schott and Vista of Maine. The project would cover more than 600 acres along the CMP corridor, from North Hills Ridge Road near Vista of Maine, through Sawyer Road near the stable, along Bull Run Road to the property just on the other side of Dead River.

The plan proposed this time is slightly different from the one city residents overwhelmingly rejected in 2022. That project, also from Swift Current, called for a solar array on city property.

Greene, and many other Maine towns of its size, have historically rejected large-scale solar panel projects.

“They don’t like the look of these endless fields of solar panels,” said Brent Armstrong, Greene code enforcement manager. “It’s going to be a huge project, and I think that worked against Swift Current in some ways. People have had time to digest the magnitude of the situation.

“Everyone who opposes the project here knows very well what they don’t like about this project,” Armstrong said. “I hope they at least consider that this would be a huge source of revenue for the city without any demand on resources.”

How Greene residents will vote is anyone’s guess.

In 2022, residents voted against a measure this would have authorized the city to enter into a lease and associated easement agreement with Greene Apple Solar Power, a subsidiary of Swift Current Energy.

In that vote, residents were largely opposed to leasing the land to Greene Apple Solar Power because they instead wanted the land to be developed for recreational fields, as city officials suggested during the purchased the land several years ago.

It remains to be seen whether voters will be influenced by the fact that the networks currently proposed would be located on private land.

The darker shaded areas in the larger image show where the solar panels would be located in the proposed project. The inset map, top left, shows the location of the plots of land on which the solar panels would be placed.