KNOX — A Helderberg group wants to be first in line in the state to connect Hilltown electric meters to an eight-acre solar array nearby.

The plan aims to lower electricity bills for two megawatts of usage — roughly 70 homes, 20 businesses, and municipal buildings in Knox and Berne — say Russell Pokorny and Robert Price of Helderberg Community Energy. Investors eager to take advantage of the tax incentives would finance the $6 million to $8 million project, so there would be no initial cost to the users, and it would be locally produced, clean energy.

Such a project, known as a power purchase agreement, has been in use as solar panels have been installed in large numbers for municipalities, schools, and large businesses. But disparate meters can’t currently benefit from a single set of solar panels.

A concept known as community net metering has gotten a closer look by the state’s Public Service Commission in recent months with the issuance of a rough outline for how an entity with members could interface with utility companies like National Grid. The members would get credit for the energy that is produced from a separate array of photovoltaic panels and flows through the existing grid.

“It’ll take off like wildfire,” said Dennis Phayre of EnterSolar, a company that builds and designs arrays for large businesses. “It’ll be the biggest form of solar.”

Such a setup is viewed as the key to getting low- and moderate-income electricity users, as well as renters, to be able to use solar energy.

But the possibility that individual members would move and leave bills unpaid concerns the investors, Price and Pokorny said.

They presented their plan on May 29, asking for formal letters from municipalities saying they would consider using the energy if an array were built. Price and Pokorny called the larger businesses and governments “anchor members.”

Price is the longtime chairman of the Knox Planning Board and Pokorny is Knox’s assessor. Pokorny was active in Helderberg Community Energy when it was developing a business model for small-scale wind energy in the Hilltowns several years ago. The plan wasn’t carried out since the cost of connecting was prohibitive and the wind speed was measured to be just below optimal, Pokorny said.

The town of Knox requested proposals for a power purchase agreement to install panels for supplying municipal electricity and was told the project wasn’t large enough to be viable.

At the May 29 meeting, Knox Supervisor Michael Hammond questioned whether a professional would be needed to handle the work of administering the array. At some point, Price said, some one would need to do the work.

“They’re dealing with Hilltown people,” Price said, alluding to their independence, “and we don’t like that model very much.”

A power purchase agreement would typically last for 20 years and include maintenance.

The array would use eight acres and require a 20-acre parcel, Price said, and an ideal property, 600 feet from a three-phase power line, has been located, though he declined to say where it is. He said it would require a 30-by-50-foot building to invert the current — which Price said produces a low hum — similar to one installed at a two-megawatt array that supplies electricity to Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs. At the time it was built, in 2014, the Skidmore array was considered one of the largest ground-mounted arrays in the state.

As one of the first to build such an array using the yet-to-be issued regulation, Price suggested the Hilltowns were ideal because of the rural location with land to hide the array so close to Albany, where the state agencies are centered.

“I keep pointing out that they can stand at Washington Avenue and look out the window of their building and see it going up,” said Price.