College of St. Joseph’s Director of Communications James Lambert points to a campus rooftop where new solar-power collectors will be erected. (Photo by Jenna Wang)
Canadian-owned Green Mountain Power recently set out on a project to make Rutland County the Solar Capital of Vermont.
This quantifiable goal stands at 6,250 kilowatts, the largest installed solar capacity per capita in the Northeast. In addition to the innovative and enthusing aspects of the project, the results will yield great benefits to the Rutland area. Foremost, the solar panel farms will create even more clean, renewable sources and the use of homegrown resources and labor will infuse money into the local economy.
GMP has already gotten a running start with projects like the Creek Path Solar Farm as well as smaller, individual projects. Recently, they awarded the College of Saint Joseph a solar farm, to be built by Positive Energy atop the roof of the college’s athletic center. While the farm at CSJ is to be built this fall, GMP is also seeking a permit to build on Rutland City’s long-closed landfill, a project named “Stafford Hill Solar Farm.”
College of Saint Joseph
Solar developer Positive Energy was selected by GMP to build its first rooftop solar farm at the College of St. Joseph. The numerous bid winners for these projects reflects excellent competition, but for CSJ, “Positive Energy provided a very competitive quote, using American-made materials, local labor and some creative thinking, and won the contract over a solid field of respected bidders,” said Steve Costello, GMP’s vice president for generation and energy innovation.
Positive Energy will build the system with assistance from students in the Green Mountain College Renewable Energy and Ecological Design major, and will use materials largely sourced from Rutland-area suppliers. Their project proposal included roof-friendly rubber feet for the solar array ballasts, made from recycled tires. Utilizing recycled materials and internal resources whenever possible has always been a Positive Energy core operating principle.
“I am very pleased that a company with local roots and local workers won the bid for the project,” College of St. Joseph President Rich Lloyd said. “As the college grows and develops its connections to GMP, the economic value of our efforts to the community will only multiply.”
The project also supports Vermont’s renewable energy goals, which include reliance on renewable energy for 90 percent of the state’s electricity needs by 2050, 20 percent through projects in Vermont’s Sustainably Priced Energy Development Program by 2017.
GMP hopes to complete the project this fall, and will own and maintain it under a 25-year lease agreement with CSJ. GMP will credit the college for 10 percent of the project’s output, and the remaining energy will go onto the local electric grid and will be consumed by local customers.
The project name, tied to the college itself, follows GMP’s practice of naming its Rutland solar farms after positive attributes of the community. Despite the imminent attainment of the solar capital goal, GMP is reaching above and beyond, continuing to talk with numerous solar developers, non-profits and local businesses about power purchase agreements and other potential projects in the city.
Stafford Hill
GMP recently applied for a Vermont Public Service Board permit to build the Stafford Hill Solar Farm on the City of Rutland’s long-closed landfill.
The 2.3-megawatt solar farm will be located off Gleason Road, behind the Stafford Technical Center and Rutland High School.
“Stafford Hill would be the first solar project in Vermont to repurpose a dormant landfill,” said GMP President and CEO Mary Powell. “There are not only tremendous renewable energy benefits, but substantial benefits for our customers and the state of Vermont in finding ways to make productive uses out of landfills and other brownfields, which would otherwise present only liabilities.”
GMP expects to put the project out to bid later this summer, and hopes to build the project in 2014.
The project will cover about 9 acres, including 7,800 solar panels that, in peak sunlight, could supply enough energy to power about 2,300 typical homes.
GMP designed the project in collaboration with Sanborn, Head and Associates, a consulting firm that has had significant experience with solar projects on landfills.
“We are hopeful that the project will provide a blueprint for developing similar sites across the state that could provide additional benefits to Vermont,” said Steve Costello, GMP’s vice president for generation and energy innovation.
Stafford Hill, named for the Stafford Technical Center and former U.S. Senator Robert Stafford, keeps with GMP’s plan to name its local solar farms after positive attributes of the community Senator Stafford is considered one of the Senate’s top all-time environmentalists, and Stafford Tech has been a solid partner on multiple GMP projects.
