Massachusetts will spur the state’s economy by spending about $54.9 million to fund a number of state energy programs, with $20 million, or about 36 percent of the total, dedicated entirely to solar energy.
The news is better than good in an economy that last month saw the highest unemployment rate since August 1983, or 9.5 percent. That figure jumps even higher using the U-6”, which showed unemployment reaching 16.5 percent in June, or worse that the 15 percent in 1982 which was tracked using similar (and since discontinued) parameters.
Massachusetts’ solar proposals, part of Gov. Deval Patrick’s Massachusetts Recovery Plan, will see a first round of investments in about 16 megawatts of solar photovoltaic (PV) projects, according to Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Ian Bowles.
The projects are located at various state-owned facilities, notably Logan International Airport’s four commercial passenger terminals (2.75 megawatts), nine Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) sites, and the Somerville Housing Authority’s two public housing projects, Mystic River and Clarendon Hill, as well as a new residence hall at Westfield State College.
The program, dubbed the ‘Solar Big Bang’ will spur jobs and move the state closer to its goal of 250 megawatts of solar power by 2017. The jobs part is critical; the clean energy part is equally so, given the rapid advance of global warming and critical ice loss in the Arctic and Antarctic.
Logan Airport, owned by the Massachusetts Port Authority, or Massport, is the gateway to New England, serving almost 30 million passengers from four terminals (A, B, C and E), each with its own ticketing facility, baggage claim and ground transportation crew. This 2.75-megawatt solar array will – barring the completion of larger projects – be the biggest PV system in Massachusetts when it is done.
The MWRA projects include $1.6 million to install rooftop solar panels at the Deer Island facility, which will cut down the plant’s need for electricity from the state’s public utilities, which use coal, oil or gas to generate 73 percent of Massachusett’s power. It will also reduce the MWRA’s carbon footprint.
Other MWRA facilities getting a solar jump-start include the Carroll Water Treatment Plant Operations Building, Post-treatment building, generator building and ground-mounted solar (1.4 megawatts), the MWRA’s Biosolids Processing Facility (400 kilowatts), and the Clinton Treatment Plants (east and west, 230 kilowatts).
Clarendon Hill and Mystic River, two of the state’s largest public housing projects, with 456 living units between them, will also get a solar boost, though the size of the installations have not yet been established.
The Westfield State College array, at 100 kilowatts, will cost $1,200,000. Massachusetts, which had about 4 megawatts of installed solar power when Gov. Patrick took office on January 4, 2007, now has 11 megawatts of solar power, with another 6.5 megawatts awaiting installation through the state’s solar rebate program, not including this recent announcement.
Massachusett’s solar rebate program, administered through Commonwealth Solar, offers homeowners $1 to $4.40 per watt, or $20,000, whichever is lesser. The $20,000 represents the maximum incentive based on a 5-kilowatt system, and the rebate is extended to any system 1 kilowatt or larger, with the commercial limit being 500 kilowatts or more.
These rebates may seem paltry, until one realizes that a system costing $31,500 – after all the incentives and rebates are calculated – will cost barely $23,000, with a doubling of property values and a 25-year utility savings of between $20,000 and $39,000.