The future of solar is bright, with many new residential and
commercial customers electing to install PV installations on their homes and
offices. With all of the new solar buzz, it can be hard to keep up. We’ve
pulled three of the best and most exciting news articles of the week.
(1)The
first community solar project in New York City has been completed
PowerMarket is a platform that allows
customers in the greater New York City area to participate in community clean
energy projects. These projects allow local customers to tap into clean (solar,
wind or hydro) energy without having to install their own systems or provide
up-front investment. The first community solar project was constructed in
Westchester County, New York, and has the potential to provide service to all
five of the encompassed boroughs. Although the project is complete, local
customers will not be able to utilize the power until 2017. Interested in tapping
into a PowerMarket clean energy installation? Customers looking to power their
homes or offices with clean energy can start by searching for a PowerMarket
project in their area. PowerMarket then reviews the customer’s electricity bill
and contacts the local grid provider to determine how much power is needed. After
executing a contract with PowerMarket, the subject home or office will be supplied
with clean energy and the utility bill will decrease. Although PowerMarket
charges a subscription fee for tapping into the clean energy installation, overall
power costs will be less than using traditional grid energy. For more
information about PowerMarket, visit:
https://thepowermarket.com/
(2)Massachusetts
Schools Participate in Brownfield Solar Project
Recently, 11,204 solar panels were
installed on a former 553-acre brownfield site in Billerica, Massachusetts. Recently
voted one of the safest towns in America by Neighborhood Scout, this relatively
small New England community is utilizing clean energy to reduce power costs and
repurpose old, abandoned industrial sites. The Billerica solar project will
provide about 4,445MWh of clean energy to four school systems and one local
government. This project is expected to supply about 20% of the power needs of
the schools and government, offsetting a staggering amount of carbon dioxide
pollution. Tenaska, a private, independent energy company based out of Omaha,
Nebraska, is the primary investor in the newly installed Billerica project,
while Soltage, a renewable energy provider, is acting as the solar plant’s
co-owner and operator. For more information about this inspiring project,
visit:
Massachusetts schools, town cut costs with brownfield solar project
(3)Largest
Solar Energy Project Installed in Zimbabwe
This past week Swiss energy provider MEECO
completed installation of a 216kWp plant in Zimbabwe. The construction of the
plant is welcome news to many local business owners, who depend heavily on
fossil fuels or are forced to run their businesses without electricity. This
project is unique in the fact that it includes a static tracker that can
optimize the position of the solar panels according to the time of day and sun
position. The system that will be installed is called the Sun2Live energy
generating system. It is currently estimated that this project will save
134,000 liters of diesel and cut 280 tons of emissions each year. For more
information on this project visit:
http://www.solardaily.com/reports/meeco_installed_biggest_solar_energy_plant_in_Zimbabwe_999.html
http://www.meeco.net/the-meeco-group/about-the-meeco-group/meeco-worldwide/zimbabwe.html
