by Valerie Hurley ·
Friday, July 10, 2026
Negotiations between town officials and Solect Energy are continuing, with the latest plan extending the date by which a formal agreement must be signed to Aug. 30 from the previous July 4 deadline.
The board voted unanimously June 30 to authorize Town Administrator Dawn Dunbar to sign a credit purchase agreement by the new deadline. “This vote does not commit the town to a lease or to the project itself; any lease of town property requires Town Meeting approval,” Select Board member Ahmet Corapcioglu said.
The current plan is for Hopkinton-based Solect Energy to install a 1.4-megawatt solar facility, without battery storage, on municipally owned land. The array would yield energy credits to offset the cost of electricity in municipal buildings, including the town’s biggest energy users, the schools. According to estimates created by members of the Harvard Energy Advisory Committee, Finance Committee, and Select Board, the facility under consideration would offset $2.37 million in municipal energy costs over a 20-year period.
As recently as June 16, the board had based its timeline on the assumption that signing the credit purchase agreement by July 4 was mandatory. In fact, Corapcioglu announced at the board’s June 30 meeting, the immediate pressure to agree to terms has eased, because Solect had already met the conditions for securing the federal tax incentives by purchasing equipment and earmarking it for an installation in Harvard. “The July 4th pressure is removed, and we can negotiate the CPA on our terms without sacrificing the tax credit,” Corapcioglu told the Press.
The date change is just the latest development in the board’s attempt to bring the solar facility into Harvard. In May, a Town Meeting vote failed to garner the two-thirds majority required to lease the town’s former gravel pit on Stow Road to Solect Energy for the facility. By June 16, Select Board members were discussing a new plan: In addition to the gravel pit, they would seek alternative sites and enter a credit purchase agreement with Solect before seeking Town Meeting approval for leasing land for the facility. However, the board has not yet named any site other than the former gravel pit, and the motion to authorize Dunbar to sign the CPA by Aug. 30 also referred to the Stow Road site.
The board is developing a list of properties that could accommodate a 1.4 megawatt facility and would also be available for suitability testing within 90 days of its identification as a possible site. “Once the list [of properties] is finalized, we’ll share it with residents,” Corapcioglu said. The gravel pit is named in the June 30 motion because, so far, “preliminary review” shows it is suitable. Furthermore, the CPA will “allow the town some flexibility on final site selection,” he said.
Pete Jackson is one abutter who remains opposed to using the gravel pit for a solar array. He said he appreciates the meetings Corapcioglu has held with gravel pit neighbors to keep them apprised of the latest developments. But he joined Stow Road resident and environmental scientist Bob Douglas in the opinion that the site is incompatible with industrial use and should instead be protected as “core wildlife habitat,” a state designation that identifies areas that are critical to rare species’ survival.
Meanwhile, the Municipal Affordable Housing Trust is moving ahead with perc tests on the former gravel pit as it assesses the site for affordable housing. Solect Energy did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.