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Following passage of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” in Washington, D.C., municipalities are scrambling to safe harbor solar projects before incentives for solar projects are phased out by the federal legislation. The process of safe harboring functionally locks in incentives and benefits under existing regulations before they go away.
For Sudbury’s Energy and Sustainability Committee, this means accelerating plans for four different projects including:
- Solary Canopy at Haskell Field parking lot
- Police Station Solar Roof
- Firestation #2 Solar Roof
- Firestation #3 Solar Roof
On Tuesday, July 22, the Sudbury Energy and Sustainability Committee voted unanimously to support safe harboring the projects at Haskell Field and the Police Station. It also voted unanimously to allocate funds for turnkey installations of solar roofs at fire stations #2 and #3. The votes came after discussion of the financial considerations of each project, and presentations by the contractors for each project.
Sudbury is attempting to navigate through the changes imposed by the federal legislation, yet some of the challenges for solar projects are local. A solar roof installation is already planned for the new Fairbank Community Center, but that project may not get underway until next year. According to Combined Facility Director Sandra Duran, there’s a leak in the new community center roof and the town will need to trace the root cause and fix it before the solar installation can proceed. That may push solar installation out until the spring of 2026.