One train has left the station and another one is boarding on Harvard's "solar express."

Immediately after the Solarize Harvard program's enrollment period ended, the community solar garden project began ramping up as another fast-track effort to bring solar renewable energy to Harvard. Homeowners and small businesses whose properties don't qualify for on-site solar installations—nearly half of Harvard sites evaluated for Solarize Mass—will have another chance with the proposed shared, large-scale array.

Contract sign-up for Solarize Mass/Harvard ended Oct. 31 and 75 Harvard homeowners contracted with New England Breeze for just over 400 kilowatts of solar photovoltaic energy, almost equalling the combined totals of the other three towns in the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center pilot project.

Now, a community solar garden project is almost ready to roll.

Organizers are moving fast to take advantage of federal solar energy grants that will expire at the end of the year. Project coordinators Worth Robbins and Jim Elkind, together with Steven Strong, principal at Solar Design Associates, and environmental lawyer Ruth Silman, have been working hard to put all the pieces together to meet the deadline.

"It's still very much a work in progress," said Robbins, who, nonetheless, was able to explain the fundamentals of the project and answer questions at two recent presentations.

According to Robbins, the team looked at several locations and is working on an agreement to lease land on Lancaster County Road from residents Don and Heidi Siegrist.

"It's a perfect site," Strong said. "There is three-phase power on the street, it is flat, and has good solar potential."

The site can accommodate a 200-kilowatt, ground-mounted solar array, enough for up to 35 households and/or small businesses, Robbins said. The anticipated cost, $5.25 per watt, is comparable to the Solarize Mass/Harvard final Tier IV price for a ground-mounted system. The Clean Energy Center has agreed to extend the same .85 cent per-watt grant it gave to Solarize Mass, and federal renewable energy grants are expected to cover 30 percent of planned construction costs.

According to Robbins, federal grant opportunities are only available until Dec. 31. To qualify for a grant, the project must be underway, with over five percent of costs expended by the deadline. After January, solar renewable incentives will revert to tax credits for which each garden shareholder would have to be eligible and file separately.

The solar garden team is pushing to finalize details and get information to anyone interested in the garden.

"The perception is that the project is for homeowners whose site didn't qualify under Solarize Mass," Strong said. "But small businesses are also eligible and it is an opportunity to offset their electrical costs."

According to the plan, no home or business will be directly connected to the solar garden array and, other than the garden meters, no other meters will be spinning backwards. Rather, electricity generated by the array will go directly to the grid. Through virtual net metering, a tariff enabled as part of the 2008 state Green Communities Act, National Grid will manage individual accounts, crediting each shareholder's designated account with a proportional share.

Shareholders will also receive income from Solar Renewable Energy Certificates that utilities purchase to reach state requirements for renewable energy. Robbins expects that, for a typical five kilowatt share, energy certificate income between $2,000 and $3,000 a year and lowered utility bills will pay back investment costs within five or six years, he said.

The garden will be organized as an LLC, a limited liability company, said Robbins, who has been modeling construction costs, maintenance and operation costs, tax implications, and benefits and risks to develop an optimal business model. Individual homeowners or business owners will purchase shares equivalent to the amount of electricity they wish to offset.

The team hopes to create a flexible organizational framework capable of expanding to multiple sites, possibly meeting municipal needs, and supporting non-profit organizations.

Robbins began researching shared neighborhood solar arrays about a year ago, after he became frustrated with the limited solar prospects on his own heavily-shaded property.

Harvard residents and small business owners interested in participating can email harvard.communitysolar@gmail.com.