Ameresco, the contractor behind Edgartown’s planned solar field at the former Meshacket landfill, went before the select board Monday to amend their contract lease agreement.

The proposed changes extend the lease agreement from 20 years to 25 years and raise the total lease payment to the town from $12 million to $14.4 million. The select board approved the changes after receiving a thumbs up from the town’s energy committee, but they must be voted on at town meeting this spring before going into effect.

Ameresco senior project manager Ryan Fahey led the presentation to the select board and argued that the proposed changes would provide a greater benefit to the town in the long run. The main reason for the timeline and budget adjustments, he said, was that the project will no longer rely on the state’s solar incentive program, which is set to expire after 20 years.

Instead, the project will rely on the state’s net metering program, streamlining the process and removing the necessity of a battery storage system, Mr. Fahey said.

“Nothing materially has really changed,” town administrator James Hagerty said.

The project is currently in a holding pattern as developers wait for Eversource, the Island’s electric utility company, to provide feedback on how the solar field would need to be interconnected to the town’s electric grid. In the meantime, Mr. Fahey said that his team will be moving forward with preliminary meetings with the state Department of Environmental Protection, the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, and other Edgartown boards to get ahead on their application.

“We are doing everything we can to be ready to act quickly once we get the feedback we’re looking for,” Mr. Fahey said.

The project has been in the works since 2019. If all goes well, Mr. Fahey said they hope to have a solar field completed by April 2025.

Despite outstanding hurdles, energy committee chair Alan Strahler said the updated lease comes as good news for the highly anticipated project.

“We’re very happy, and we’re just as disappointed as you all have been with Eversource and the delays on this,” he said.