HANSON — Oct. 21, 2026 — A solar developer asked the Whitman-Hanson Regional School Committee on Wednesday for a 35-year easement to run an access road and utility lines across district land, offering a one-time $192,500 fee to be paid once the project gets a building permit. The presentation was informational. The committee took no vote, and a proposal is expected to return after review by district counsel.
The Full Story
Pope Energy, the trade name its presenter, Doug Pope, gave for Boston solar developer Pope Clean Energy LLC, said the project planned for privately owned land next to district property cannot use its original route. A 50-foot right-of-way to Franklin Street turned out to be wet soil, and coming in from the south would disturb 5,300 square feet of wetland soil, above a 5,000-square-foot limit, Pope said. Crossing district land along the existing driveway and pole line would disturb about 4,900 square feet and avoid an Army Corps process the presenter called very long.
Under the proposal as presented, the district would keep ownership and grant a non-exclusive easement for access and utility lines for 35 years. The $192,500 would be prepaid, which Pope called the equivalent of $5,500 per year. Construction would bring six to 10 vehicles a day for six to eight months, with hours coordinated with the superintendent’s office, and operations would mainly mean mowing twice a year, he said. Aspen Power Partners, described as a New York City investor, now owns the project and would build and operate it, according to the presentation.
Asked where the $192,500 figure came from, he said the developer weighed the value of what it would otherwise have to do, citing a $190,000 cost to go to the Army Corps.
Members pressed on wear to the school driveway, truck traffic near the tennis courts and the project’s battery storage. Rosemary Aahanna-Hill said the district had just paid for work on portions of the road and needs it functional for buses. She also asked that a repair pledge be written into the agreement.
On fire risk, Pope read aloud a question and answer conversation with Claude AI about a 4.99-megawatt AC solar and battery storage project, introducing them this way:
He paraphrased the answer as roughly a 0.04 percent annual chance of a serious fire for a modern outdoor battery system and offered to send it to the superintendent. Aahanna-Hill said the reply did not answer what chemicals would be released or how the district would get children out of the school. Pope guessed the site is well over 1,000 feet from the school and about 500 feet from the tennis courts, and said the fire department would likely spray the surrounding ground and let a battery fire burn.
The committee was told the developer will send a detailed proposal, that it will be reviewed with the business office and district counsel, and that a proposal to let the district enter into an arrangement will come back to the committee.
