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WMECo completes New England’s largest solar facility

The Silver Lake facility in Pittsfield uses 6,500 solar photovoltaic panels

The Western Massachusetts Electric Company has completed construction on the largest solar power facility in New England.

The power utility used a number of local and regional contractors to install the 1.8 megawatt Silver Lake project at the William Stanley Business Park in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

The ground-mounted system is the first development in the company’s 6MW two-year solar program.

Peter Clarke, President and Chief Operating Officer of WMECo, said: “Large scale solar energy today becomes a reality in the Commonwealth. Silver Lake provides tangible evidence that large scale utility-owned solar makes sense on many levels.

“We are demonstrating a commitment to development of the region’s renewable energy industry while also revitalizing an environmentally-challenged site,” added Mr Clarke.

Project

The Silver Lake solar project comprises about 6,500 solar panels on eight acres of land owned by WMECo and the Pittsfield Economic Development Authority.

It should provide enough power to supply 300 homes with electricity, plus $150,000 a year in property taxes for the City of Pittsfield.

WMECo said its contractors involved in the project included Weston & Sampson, J. H. Maxymillian, American Capital Energy (ACE), E.S. Boulos and Witch Enterprises.

The company, a subsidiary of Northern Utilities that serves 200,000 customers in western Massachusetts, was the first utility in New England to receive approval from the state’s Department of Public Utilities to build solar energy facilities.

Massachusetts Energy Secretary Ian Bowles said the project was an “important contribution” to efforts to develop 250MW of solar generating capacity in the state by 2017.

Mr Bowles said: “Large projects such as this provide economies of scale that reduce the cost of this clean, renewable energy source. I’m glad to see our utilities going greener and look forward to more of it in the years ahead.”