Growing Green Energy

Dunkiel Saunders represented Ferrisburgh Solar Farm Operating LLC, an affiliate of Pomerleau Real Estate, helping the company obtain the permits and financing it needed to construct a 1.0 megawatt (MW) solar facility in Ferrisburgh, Vermont. To ensure the project met the deadline for state and federal tax credits, and qualified for inclusion in Vermont's renewable energy purchasing program, moving swiftly was essential.

Working together with Pomerleau's experienced development team, Dunkiel Saunders provided time-sensitive and comprehensive legal advice to help the company obtain a Certificate of Public Good (CPG) from the Public Service Board. This included developing expert testimony on visual aesthetics, wetland and other environmental resources, decommissioning, solar glare, green labeling requirements for the sale of Renewable Energy Credits, and utility interconnection issues. After the CPG was issued, we helped fashion solutions to the unique financing challenges associated with a type of commercial renewable energy project that had yet to be financed and sited in New England, including due-diligence review and providing opinion letters to the lenders.

As a result of Dunkiel Saunders' work and the Pomerleau team's efforts, the Ferrisburgh Project was the first commercial-scale renewable energy project in Vermont's new "feed-in-tariff" program to win regulatory approval and close on financing. The project began providing electricity to the grid less than a year after conception and is currently the largest operating solar facility in the state.

Dunkiel Saunders has provided and continues to perform similar permitting, financing, tax, and project-development services for numerous other renewable-energy clients on a wide range of facilities including, but not limited to, solar, wind, hydroelectric, and biomass combined heat and power projects.

Photo © Mike Riddell