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North Shore utilities partner again, this time on solar power

By John Castelluccio Staff Writer
Feb 11, 2021

Public power companies in Peabody, Marblehead and Ipswich are teaming up with three other municipal utilities across the state on a new project to add more solar power to their energy portfolios.

The six utilities — all members of the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company — together are constructing a new 7-megawatt capacity solar farm in Western Mass. It will be a ground-mounted solar project on a 30-acre section of MMWEC's 200-acre campus in Ludlow, according to a press release.

Construction is expected to begin this summer, MMWEC says, with the new solar project coming online late in the year. It is projected to cost $14.5 million.

MMWEC says it is working on a contract with EDF Renewables Distributed Solutions Inc. as the project developer.

“The site selected on MMWEC’s campus represents an ideal location for this type of project,” said MMWEC CEO Ronald DeCurzio in a statement. “We are happy to be able to provide this opportunity to our members looking to increase their ownership of carbon-free and renewable generation. This is yet another example of the ways MMWEC and its members use their joint action agency capabilities of vertical integration and project ownership to lead the way in incorporating new carbon-free resources, dating back to the 1980s.”

The other three municipal utility companies on this project are in Wakefield, Boylston and Mansfield.

With the exception of Mansfield, these utilities were also part of larger partnership that built and maintains a now 19.6-megawatt wind farm in the Berkshires, which first came online in 2011. It was a more than $76 million investment in total, the second largest wind farm in the state and provides enough power for about 7,800 homes.