Pine Gate Renewables will bring 9 MW of solar-plus-storage to southeast Massachusetts under the state’s Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (SMART) program, with a twist on traditional agrivoltaics.
The projects are to be built over cranberry bogs, the first such installation known to pv magazine.
The 9 MW of solar capacity and corresponding storage will be divvied across two projects in Carver, about an hour southeast of Boston. Solar Carver 1 will be built on a 70-acre site that will generate 5 MW of solar energy, accompanied by 30 MWh of battery storage. Solar Carver 3 will have a capacity of 2 MW and house a 12 MWh battery storage system across a 35-acre site.
To keep the locations dual-use, Pine Gate’s EPC team will engineer the projects to rest on more than 3,300 40-foot-long wooden utility poles, which are expected to be more durable for the wet terrain. The poles will be driven 15-30 feet into the ground to keep the trackers at least 10 feet above the cranberry bogs and allow for annual harvesting.
The two installations also were selected for observation as part of a University of Massachusetts-Amherst study on the dual-use solar projects’ inter-row solar panel spacing atop the cranberry bogs.
Carver Solar 1 and 3 also mark Pine Gate Renewables’ first projects in Massachusetts.
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