Hadley Select Board Unanimously Backs Non-Binding Solar Lease Deal for Closed Landfill

HADLEY -- February 23, 2026, Hadley Select Board approves non-binding solar letter of intent for closed landfill, projecting $4.167 million over 25 years. The board voted unanimously, 5-0, on both actions at its February 23 remote meeting: authorizing a letter of intent with developer SunWealth and paying $950 to join the nonprofit broker Power Options. Solar Task Force co-chairs Michael Docter and Shardul Parmar told the board that SunWealth would credit 30 percent of electricity-sale revenue against the town's energy bills, worth roughly $140,000 per year, plus an annual payment in lieu of taxes of about $13,000, with both figures rising with inflation and no upfront cost to the town beyond the membership fee. The letter of intent carries a 270-day window and is non-binding. A member of the public argued at length that the task force had held only one substantive public meeting since its founding in 2024 and that interconnection-cost discussions with a neighboring farm's solar interest had proceeded without public notice, calling on the board to dissolve the committee and restart the process transparently, a motion the board declined to take up before voting to proceed.