AMHERST - A solar project at the old landfill on Belchertown Road could be completed this year.

"It's a very ambitious but achievable goal that we have," Town Manager John Musante said Tuesday.

Musante said he is preparing to move forward with the project, which Town Meeting last May overwhelmingly supported, giving him authority to lease all or a portion of the landfill to BlueWave Capital for up to 30 years.

While a lawsuit is pending in Hampshire Superior Court and negotiations for a power-purchase agreement with Blue Wave are ongoing, Musante said he wants to demonstrate that Amherst remains committed to renewable energy.

The project, which would install a solar array that would generate up to 4.75 megawatts of power annually for the town, also meets two of the nine performance goals set by the Select Board, that Musante should confront fiscal challenges with a new source of revenue and make the community more sustainable with its energy use.

Solar power at the old landfill, Musante said, can reduce and stabilize electricity costs and provide new taxable property.

Musante said he is confident the lawsuit is moving toward a successful resolution, while completing the deal with power-purchase agreement is inching along.

"It's been painstaking, but it's very close," Musante said.

Once this deal is done, BlueWave can move from a conceptual proposal to one that is refined and brought before the state's Department of Environmental Protection and the town's Zoning Board of Appeals for permits.

An interconnection agreement with Western Massachusetts Electric Co. also has to be finalized.

The solar project is highlighted as part of a six-page progress report Musante gave to the Select Board this week on how well he is meeting performance goals set for him.

Among other goals are strengthening relationships with the University of Massachusetts, improving staff morale and greening the community. In his memo, he notes that he is achieving these in part through the Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods initiative that aims to improve the quality of interactions between UMass students and residents; that the new labor agreements with municipal unions include the formation of a labor management committee requested by Department of Public Works employees; and that an aggressive tree planting plan will come before the Joint Capital Planning Committee.

Select Board Chairwoman Stephanie O'Keeffe said she appreciates Musante providing detailed accounting of what he is accomplishing. She said this is important in decision making as it relates to projects and buildings. "It helps to have community discussions about them," O'Keeffe said.