Nexamp, Inc., a leading provider of solar energy solutions, today celebrated the completion of its newest community solar project, a 700 kilowatt (kW) facility located in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. It is the first community solar project to serve Unitil customers in Massachusetts and will provide local residents and small businesses with access to the benefits of solar energy for the first time.
Through Nexamp’s innovative Solarize My Bill™ community solar program, participating Unitil customers, many of whom were previously unable to install solar panels on their own property, are now seeing reduced electricity charges through their subscription to the Fitchburg Solar project. In addition, the neighboring Town of Lunenburg will realize substantial energy cost savings through a long-term agreement to purchase discounted energy credits generated by the project. Together, the Town of Lunenburg and Nexamp’s Solarize My Bill customers are expected to save hundreds of thousands of dollars through their participation in the project.
“Lunenburg has enjoyed a very beneficial relationship with Nexamp,” said Phyllis Luck, Board of Selectman, Town of Lunenburg. “In addition to the Town’s net metering agreement, which is expected to generate over $600,000 in utility cost savings over the next 20 years, Nexamp has extended the partnership to include our Town’s residents, who remain keenly interested in community solar. In fact, Nexamp enrolled nearly 40 Lunenburg households in two weeks’ time to their Solarize My Bill community solar program and these residents should save over $275,000 in electricity costs over the term of their subscriptions with Nexamp.”
The project is situated on land towards the rear of an active apple orchard in Fitchburg, providing the landowners with a reliable source of ground lease income that will help keep the orchard operational and enable it to offset nearly all of its energy needs from local renewable resources.
“Fitchburg Solar demonstrates the impact solar energy has on the community, the environment, and the economy,” said Zaid Ashai, Chief Executive Officer of Nexamp. “At the core of Massachusetts’ burgeoning community solar market, net metering enables Nexamp to expand solar access to previously underserved customers while supporting the local economy by creating jobs and generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings for the community. This project – with the support of the Town of Lunenburg, the City of Fitchburg, the landowners, and our local Solarize My Bill subscribers – is just the latest example of the robust clean energy economy that has matured in Massachusetts under the Baker Administration.”
Fitchburg Solar is one of 17 community solar facilities that Nexamp has constructed and expects to achieve operations in the coming months. With its rapidly expanding customer base, the company expects to be serving thousands of households, small businesses and non-profits by the end of 2017 in Massachusetts alone, from previously developed projects, while expanding the Solarize My Bill offering into new and thriving community solar markets. However, the company’s future project development in the Commonwealth will largely depend on the availability of net metering and the much-anticipated implementation of the SMART program, which is expected to replace Massachusetts’ decidedly successful SREC II program.
