Sparks fly, solar panels are shelved: CMLP board jabs at school leaders
“This is something the town wants to get accomplished, and I don’t feel that they are a faithful partner.”
After years of work, the Acton Municipal Light Plant is — for now — scrapping plans to put solar panels atop the new middle school.
While some officials hold out hope, Light Board members say CMLP has been wasting its time and money as school leaders drag their feet.
“This is something the town wants to get accomplished, and I don’t feel that they are a faithful partner,” board member Brian Foulds said of district leaders earlier this month.
The Acton Bridge reached out to schools Superintendent Laurie Hunter and K-8 School Committee Chair Andrew Herchek independently. The two responded with a joint statement issued through a spokesperson, saying they “are pleased to continue collaborating” with CMLP and the Light Board.
School officials celebrated opening the Ellen Garrison Building at Acton Middle School this year. Climate Action Committee Chair Brad Dye said this is unfinished business: “Nobody should consider the middle school construction complete until there are solar panels on the roof.”
Town Manager Kerry Lafleur said during last week’s Select Board meeting that the solar project is “officially on hold.” Although the town collected proposals, she said neither bidder met all the contract requirements.
School leaders also haven’t finalized a site license, officials have raised safety concerns, and Lafleur said the “economics of the project have changed” due to federal policy shifts and other hurdles.
“We’re not immediately moving forward because of all of these other reasons,” she told The Bridge.
License limbo
School officials promoted their more than $100 million building as a “solar-ready” construction where panels could offset 100% of energy needs.
CMLP took the lead on getting panels. Town Meeting approved funding in 2023. Early plans envisioned rooftop panels, a battery storage system, and parking lot canopies.
CMLP might have saved money by syncing their project with middle school construction, but Light Plant Director Jason Bulger said that was “deemed to be disruptive to the school project.”
Bulger said at the light board’s November 12 meeting that school officials and their architect chose the location for the battery system necessary to support parking lot canopies. The School Committee raised safety concerns over the past year, and CMLP focused on only a rooftop panel proposal.
Bulger said CMLP couldn’t award a contract without a site license. Despite the concession, he said, “There was a lot of time spent waiting.”
The School Committee approved an agreement in May. Bulger said Hunter never executed the agreement.
‘Hopefully nothing explodes’
CMLP’s entire supply has been non-emitting — meaning it’s either from renewable sources or offset with energy credits — since 2023. Asked whether this makes the Ellen Garrison Building net-zero by default, Dye said, “Absolutely not.”
Bulger faced questions about solar safety at a December 2024 School Committee meeting. Panelists were especially concerned about failing batteries on the CMS roof.
In one exchange, then-member Alexa Anderson asked if they “hopefully not explode or do they actually not explode?”
“Hopefully nothing explodes,” Bulger said.
Hunter and Herchek, in their statement, said that district leaders have been in talks with CMLP to coordinate campus access, and they anticipated that work would start in summer 2026.
Hunter didn’t directly answer a question about why she didn’t execute the site license but said in her statement with Herchek, “We continue to engage with CMLP’s timeline while ensuring that any future project on school grounds, such as the park[ing] lot canopies and accompanying battery, is thoroughly reviewed for student safety.”
In a follow-up exchange, Herchek said that “no one from CMLP has reached out to me at any point to follow up on, request, or flag any urgency around this agreement.”
While the School Committee has raised concerns about battery storage, and though the project now seems stalled, district-contracted public relations staff last month published an article about the middle school’s net-zero status that explicitly mentioned solar panels and battery storage.
‘Doing your job for you’
Light Board member Bianca Taylor flagged money that CMLP has put into the solar project. Colleague Chris Schaffner called the state of events “extremely disappointing.”
Foulds said the School Committee “kept asking ‘What do we get?’” He said, “We’re doing your job for you,” delivering a net-zero building.
For a better process, Bulger told The Bridge, “the school needs to be a stakeholder that’s actively engaged.”
“Their focus was understandably on something else during the construction of the project,” he said earlier this month.
Foulds said, “CMLP has to stop investing our time and effort and money until we really get a faithful partner in the schools.”
“We’re only going to want to move forward if there is evidence that there’s going to be a good partner at schools,” said Chair Warren Leon.
Bulger said staff will spend “a couple of months” reviewing options and working with school leaders before returning to the Light Board with an update.
