Batteries, PPA help community solar project to get go ahead in Massachusetts

January 25, 2018
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A commercial rooftop solar installation elsewhere in the US. The Origis project will pair a rooftop PV system with a battery installed at ground level nearby. Image: Borrego Solar.

The addition of energy storage has made a 1MW community rooftop solar project in Massachusetts viable after a long-term PPA was secured with a local utility.

Sterling Community Solar + Energy Storage, pairing 1MW of rooftop solar PV with a 1MW / 2MWh battery energy storage system, will be constructed by Florida-headquartered Origis Energy. Origis announced yesterday that it has secured a power purchase agreement (PPA) with utility Sterling Municipal Light Department (SMLD).

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Expected to be the Commonwealth state’s first completed solar-plus-storage project, capable of delivering 1.7MWh of so-called ‘baseload’ electricity each year, the community project had originally been proposed as a solar-only installation. This, however, was pushed back and didn’t happen due to the already-high penetration of solar on the local grid, which raised concerns.

To read the full version of this story, visit Energy-Storage.News.

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