ROCKLAND – The Knox County Commissioners met in chambers on December 1, at the Knox County Courthouse. Commissioner Sharyn Pohlman was not in attendance. Two agenda items concerning the Knox County Regional Airport passed, the first concerning the county’s solar array.

Knox Airport Manager Jeremy Shaw said the process started approximately four year ago.

“One of the county’s biggest investments was $11 million into solar,” he said. “After doing due diligence on the land, we found out we didn’t have the property to do that.”

Shaw said they started looking at other parcels.

“We found the only parcel we had that wasn’t a wetland was adjacent to the airport terminal and just less than two acres,” he said. “We have developed a 360 Kilowatt system that Pine Tree Solar will be installing along Ash Point Drive.”

Shaw said they received the go-ahead on August 4, with a completion date set for January 2024.

On Dec. 11, the two County Commissioners authorized the County Administrator to sign and execute the interconnection agreement between the County and Central Maine Power in order to distribute what is generated by the array.

The commissioners also authorized a Tariff Rate Agreement that enables the Knox County Airport Solar Project to generate and sell energy to all of the County of Knox facilities, contingent upon review and approval of the county’s legal counsel.

Shaw explained that motion established Knox County has having a shared financial interest in the project.

“They [the county] can purchase the net energy billing credits from the airport at a discounted rate,” he said. “Fair market discount for solar. The airport will consume the power first and any excess will be sold in a cascading order for county properties.”

That order constitutes the airport, jail, public safety building and courthouse.

Shaw said the solar array should meet all the electric needs of the county.

“It’s a huge step in becoming green,” he said. “This project is just over $1.2 million. The FAA is now looking into funding solar arrays and if that is the case the opportunity is there to build an even larger array and have even more financial benefit for the county and the airport.”

Shaw said they have a little more room at the airport, and they had identified a parcel of land in Warren suitable for solar, but the FAA said they were not keen in funding offsite facilities.

Commissioners also voted to close the county offices at noon on Friday, December 22, for the Christmas Holiday. Offices would reopen on Tuesday, December 26.