For decades, Canton residents hauled their trash to the local landfill. Then, 25 years ago, it was capped, covered with a lining and buried under a layer of soil and grass.
Tweet 1 person Tweeted thisSubmit to DiggdiggsdiggYahoo! Buzz ShareThis The land lay unused until last year, when the town decided to turn the former dump into what officials say will be the largest solar array in New England.
Across the state, dozens of other cash-strapped communities are also hoping to install solar panels on their landfills. Massachusetts, which requires utilities to purchase a percentage of power from renewable sources, is hoping to spark a national trend.
Victor Del Vecchio, chairman of Canton's Board of Selectmen, said the town began accepting bids for the solar project last year after it decided that plunking panels on the landfills made sense. He said that over the next 25 years, the project could generate up to $70 million for the town from a combination of new revenues and energy savings.
Southern Sky Renewable Energy, the company that plans to install the 24,000, three-foot by five-foot panels, is also hoping to cash in. The panels are expected to generate up to 5.6 megawatts of power by 2012, making it the largest installation in the region.
Southern Sky Managing Director Frank McMahon said the project is the company's first on a landfill.
The key to the project's finances is the state's Solar Renewable Energy Certificates program, established to help the state reach a goal of producing 250 megawatts of solar power by 2017. The state is currently producing about 76 megawatts.
Massachusetts requires utilities to purchase at least 6 percent of their power from new renewable energy sources in order to boost the state's reliance on "green" energy. Solar renewable energy certificates are one way of helping increase those energy sources.
Under the program, solar projects generate one solar credit for each megawatt hour. Those credits are then sold at auction to utilities that need them to help meet their renewable goals.
To guarantee the value of the credits, the state sets a minimum of about $285 for each credit, although the price can rise as high as $550.
A one megawatt project can produce about 1,140 megawatt hours of power a year. If those 1,140 credits were auctioned at the minimum of $285 each, that would translate into nearly $325,000 in credits annually.
Energy Secretary Richard Sullivan said the certificate program puts Massachusetts ahead of other states.
