SunEdison, Inc. today announced that is has signed an agreement to develop and install a 2.6MW solar power plant for the town of Winchendon, Mass. on a previously unusable 12 acre town-owned landfill site. The landfill site will be converted under Massachusetts' Solar Renewable Energy Certificates (SREC II) program, which provides preferred incentives for brown field projects.
"The State's incentive program is a real driver for innovation when it comes to land use," says Steve Raeder, Managing Director of Distributed Generation Eastern USA at SunEdison, "It creates the opportunity to give unusable land a new life by converting it into a site for solar energy – towns like Winchendon can convert what was once a potential liability into a revenue generating asset."
"This is a great opportunity for Winchendon to take an underutilized piece of land and turn it into a clean, reliable source of energy," says Town Manager Jim Kreidler, "We're excited to be working with SunEdison to make this project a reality, and with SunEdison's fixed-price power purchase agreement we will save the town around $400,000 in the first year alone!"
Winchendon will save up to $8 million in energy costs over the 20 year power purchase agreement and will also receive incremental lease revenue from SunEdison. The solar power plant is projected to save 1,805 tons of carbon dioxide per year, equivalent to the amount of carbon sequestered by 1,479 acres of trees, or taking 380 cars off the road.