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A view of the Arrigoni Bridge, which brings Route 66 over the Connecticut River from Middletown to Portland, is seen from the 80-foot Midden Landfill Trail peak.

Work is underway on the new Midden Landfill Trail, which leads from the transfer station to the top of the former landfill in the North End of the city. Shown here is the gravel walkway to the peak.

The Midden Landfill Trail, which leads from the transfer station to the top of the former landfill in the North End, has sweeping views of the entire area, including downtown Middletown and the Arrigoni Bridge.

MIDDLETOWN — The city, in the final stages of creating a short nature trail to the top of the former 80-foot-high landfill, will install solar arrays projected to net about $450,000 in energy credits over the next two decades.

Views at the top of the Midden Panorama Trail, which can be accessed by a short nature trail with a steep climb, afford a nearly 360-degree view of the surroundings, including Cromwell and other towns. Looking southeast, the Arrigoni Bridge into Portland, 90 feet high at the base, appears to be below the top site line.

The contract, with Hartford-based Verogy, is for a 850+ KwH system, comprised of 1,000 panels, Middletown Public Works Director Chris Holden explained at last week’s Public Works and Facilities meeting.

Construction is expected to begin in 2024, Holden said.

“When they do archaeology for Native American sites, a midden is a pile of shells — or any kind of leftover debris from a settlement that gives you information about what that community was doing,” Hall has said.

About a year ago, the city sent out a request for qualifications, and received a handful of applications, then narrowed that down to two prospects, Holden said.

Eversource’s supply rate is 0.15 per KwH, however, those municipalities that contract under the utility’s Buy-All Incentive rate, provided as an incentive to install green energy options, are charged 29 cents per KwH, the utility said.

Middletown will get a credit of 2.1 cents per KwH, Holden said, which will net approximately $22,000 over the next 20 years to offset other electricity accounts, for an expected total of $450,000.

Eversource uses net metering, a method of measuring the energy consumed and produced by a customer’s generating facility, according to its website. Any excess energy is returned to the customer as credits on their bill.

The landfill was closed in 1991. Citing a 2007 study, Jonah Center for Earth and Art executive director and Clean Energy Task Force member John Hall said the site no longer emits methane gas from “stuff rotting.”

Earth was placed on the landfill and capped with between 12 and 18 inches of clay for stability, then seeded with grass, which was required by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

“A profile of the site determined the arrays should be down a bit from the peak, so that, if you’re standing at the top, your view is not going to get blocked,” Holden said.

Some grading will be necessary. “When waste degrades, over time, it creates a little depression on the top of the landfill” that needs to be filled in, Holden said.

Arrays, which will be positioned on the south side, take full advantage of the sun.

“[The plan] seems good to me. I hope it will be below eyesight,” and won’t interfere with the recreational use of the landfill, Hall said.

Although solar panels emit some carbon dioxide, he added, “it is a more sustainable form of electricity-generating system,” Hall added.

A platform at the peak will allow birders, wildlife enthusiasts and others to enjoy the view.

“We don’t want to put a path up there and be looking at solar panels,” the public works head said.

The trail work was funded by DEEP.

For the solar panels, Eversource provided the funding through the state. The city won’t spend any taxpayer dollars on the project, Holden explained. “We’re actually making money,” with the savings, he said.

There are other such installations on city-owned land. In July 2018, the city placed a 714-panel solar array adjacent to the Higby Water Treatment Facility at 260 Meriden Road to help mitigate the effects of the “single largest energy hog in the city” — its water treatment plant — officials said at the time.

The panels, installed by Greenskies Renewable Energy, also installed arrays on the flat roof of the city-owned R.M. Keating Historical Enterprise Park on Johnson Street, adjacent to the transfer station and former dump.

The new recreation center at the former Woodrow Wilson Middle School, will also be partly fueled by solar energy.

Sustainable energy advocates are always looking for projects to incorporate such panels, Hall said. Besides the top of facilities, big box stores and warehouses, they are placed atop a number of parking lot overhangs, which double as shaded areas for vehicles, he explained.

“As a society, we need to find places to put solar arrays that aren’t on farmland, and we’re not cutting down woods to put arrays in — these are the worst ideas for unused land,” Hall noted.

It is very “exciting” to be at the top, he said. Viewers can also see the marshlands at the convergence of the Mattabassett and Coginchaug rivers.

“Every solar array, municipal, commercial or residential, can only help move Middletown toward a cleaner, greener future,” Middletown Clean Energy Task Force Chairwoman Anna Salo-Markowski said. “Our goal is to ultimately be powered by 100 percent renewable sources, and the Clean Energy Task Force is working on ways to make that happen.”

Considering the “crisis” of climate change, Salo-Markowski added, “We can’t rely on the federal government to save us, so local governments and citizens must do their part.”

“Considering what has been there for many years, I can’t think of a better place symbolic of renewable energy,” Common Councilman Ed McKeon said at the meeting.

The proposal, already endorsed by the Clean Energy Task Force, will next go to the Planning and Zoning Commission.

Cassandra Day is an award-winning multimedia journalist and resident of the North End of Middletown who has been reporting nearly every facet of the city for over two decades.