Oct 28 2010
Western Massachusetts Electric Company (WMECo) announced the culmination of its New England solar power generating facility. The new 1.8 MW solar project located at the William Stanley Business Park, over Silver Lake Boulevard in Pittsfield, is its first development out of the totally planned 6 MW solar facility.
The WMECo solar farm is located over eight acres of land jointly owned by Pittsfield Economic Development Authority (PEDA) and WMECo that incorporates around 6,500 solar panels. The power generated from the facility is adequate to power 300 average homes. The low profile panels installed at the development are covered by a fence. The solar farm brings around $150,000 as revenue to the City of Pittsfield as annual property tax. The WMECo solar farm had received the approval from the Department of Public Utilities in August 2009, for its application to build a 6 MW solar farm in the state. WMECo has availed the services of contractors such as E.S. Boulos and Witch Enterprises, American Capital Energy (ACE), J. H. Maxymillian and Weston and Sampson for the completion of the project. The company is in the process of building solar farms in places such as brownfield properties and capped landfills with restrictions for public usage.
Peter Clarke, WMECo’s President and Chief Operating Officer, said that the large scale solar energy production facilities has become functional countrywide. He added that the Silver Lake solar facility offers visual evidence to prove that large scale utility-owned solar possessed facilities that are comprehensible at all levels and the latest facility establishes the pledge of the state towards renewable energy while utilizing a site that is environmentally unfit to use.