Solar projects give a second life to former contaminated sites in Massachusetts

Syncarpha Capital, New York City, and Pacolet Milliken, Greenville, South Carolina, have announced the addition of three solar projects, located in the towns of Leominster, North Adams and Palmer, Massachusetts, to their jointly-owned solar portfolio. The grid-connected projects, all privately funded, are currently delivering 12 megawatts of clean, renewable energy.

"Not only are we assisting public sector customers in reducing their energy costs," states Cliff Chapman, managing partner of Syncarpha Capital. "But, we've identified the overall environmental benefit of developing clean energy projects on remediated land. The site in North Adams was a former landfill and the location in Palmer was a brownfield site. We're putting Massachusetts land back to productive use."

The solar projects are part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency "RE-powering America's Land" initiative. The initiative encourages the development of renewable energy on current and formerly contaminated lands such as landfills, brownfields and superfund sites.

"Our partnership with Syncarpha continues to see the successful deployment of renewable energy that will provide sustainable benefits for many years to come," says Ralph Walker, executive vice president of energy for Pacolet Milliken. "The addition of these three projects brings the solar portfolio in Massachusetts to eighteen megawatts, of which have all gone online within the last two years."

During the first year of operation, the projects are expected to generate enough energy to offset the annual electricity requirements of 1,500 typical U.S. residences and should avoid the creation of 11,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year. The towns of Leominster, North Adams and Palmer will purchase the energy at favorable rates over the next 20 years, according to Syncarpha.

"There are positive impacts that this will have in North Adams - there are the economic benefits that we will see, certainly it will benefit our budget by reducing electric costs," says Ross Vivori, chairman and principal assessor for the city of North Adams. "It is also a step forward in improving the environment and future for the generations to come."