This Week In Solar News - May 1, 2017
Mar 1st 2017
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:
(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:
(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
