News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Time will soon run out for a planned solar project to get underway in Monterey.
Mayor Bill Wiggins said the contract with Atlanta-based Hannah Solar states that work must begin by July 1st.
“I am not optimistic at all. I think what’s happened is that the solar power industry is not as profitable as it once was,” Wiggins said. “I just have an idea that it’s hard to get investors into that particular thing anymore.”
Wiggins said Hannah Solar informed him a month ago that solar arrays were being assembled for the project, but work to install the panels has not started.
I’m not optimistic, but I would like it to happen,” Wiggins said.
In the spring of 2017 the town of Monterey entered into a 20-year contract with Hannah Solar to install a number of solar panels. The panels are supposed to be located at the police department, city hall, Monterey Depot Museum, and sewer plant.
Wiggins said the project basically came at no cost to taxpayers and after 20 years the county will own the solar system which should be generating an estimated $70,000 by that time.
“The only thing we had to pay was some fees to the Tennessee Valley Authority,” Wiggins said. “Hannah will bare all the cost to the installation and all we pay them is a percentage of the kilowatt hours generated.”
