Dedham may soon be the site of one of the state’s largest solar arrays.
As part of a shift to cleaner energy, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority will open up land it owns on the Dedham/Readville border – known as Readville Yard 5 – for the construction of a solar collection facility.
“We’re extremely excited about it,” said Mike Donaghy, manager of energy efficiency for the MBTA. “This tells a really good story about the MBTA’s commitment to green energy, energy conservation and cost savings.”
The transportation authority will be accepting bids from solar companies beginning on May 24. A stipulation of bidding is that construction must be complete within one year, Donaghy said.
“We’re hoping for construction to begin this summer and at the latest the array will be operational by spring of 2013,” Donaghy said.
The MBTA is putting the project out to bid because other companies can take advantage of solar tax credits that the MBTA cannot as a tax-exempt organization, according to Donaghy.
Under the proposed agreement, the MBTA would retain ownership of the land while the organization agreeing to build the solar array would own the facility, Donaghy said. In this way, the MBTA could pursue a solar project without any up front construction costs, he said.
Another part of the deal is that the MBTA would be able to buy that energy at a low rate while the solar company enjoyed tax credits and renewable energy credits that can be traded as a commodity, Donaghy said.
The Readville Yard 5 site is expected to yield at least 2,500 megawatt hours of electricity per year, and the MBTA will purchase the energy from the winning company for 20 years, Donaghy said.
This would be just a drop in the bucket for the MBTA, the largest consumer of energy in the state, according to Donaghy. The MBTA uses 425,000 megawatt hours annually, he said.
Readville Yard 5 was a good site for the project as it had previously been contaminated and cannot now be used for residential development, Donaghy said. The MBTA got the land as a part of the state’s takeover of the railroad companies in the 1970s.
Remediation of the site involved removing harmful substances like lead and arsenic and took years to complete, according to Donaghy. That process was recently completed, he said.
Simultaneously, the MBTA is pursuing a similar arrangement for a smaller parcel of land in Revere and hopes to establish other solar sites on land it owns in Somerville and Billerica in the future, Donaghy said.
Donaghy and other MBTA officials are working to determine a realistic goal for how much of its energy use could come from renewable energy sources.
“We are pursuing any and all opportunities for the procurement of alternative energy,” Donaghy said.
Staff writer Dave Eisenstadter can be reached at 781-433-8336 or deisenstadter@wickedlocal.com. Like The Dedham Transcript on Facebook and follow @DedhamTranscrip on Twitter.
Dedham may soon be the site of one of the state’s largest solar arrays.
As part of a shift to cleaner energy, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority will open up land it owns on the Dedham/Readville border – known as Readville Yard 5 – for the construction of a solar collection facility.
“We’re extremely excited about it,” said Mike Donaghy, manager of energy efficiency for the MBTA. “This tells a really good story about the MBTA’s commitment to green energy, energy conservation and cost savings.”
The transportation authority will be accepting bids from solar companies beginning on May 24. A stipulation of bidding is that construction must be complete within one year, Donaghy said.
“We’re hoping for construction to begin this summer and at the latest the array will be operational by spring of 2013,” Donaghy said.
The MBTA is putting the project out to bid because other companies can take advantage of solar tax credits that the MBTA cannot as a tax-exempt organization, according to Donaghy.
Under the proposed agreement, the MBTA would retain ownership of the land while the organization agreeing to build the solar array would own the facility, Donaghy said. In this way, the MBTA could pursue a solar project without any up front construction costs, he said.
Another part of the deal is that the MBTA would be able to buy that energy at a low rate while the solar company enjoyed tax credits and renewable energy credits that can be traded as a commodity, Donaghy said.
The Readville Yard 5 site is expected to yield at least 2,500 megawatt hours of electricity per year, and the MBTA will purchase the energy from the winning company for 20 years, Donaghy said.
This would be just a drop in the bucket for the MBTA, the largest consumer of energy in the state, according to Donaghy. The MBTA uses 425,000 megawatt hours annually, he said.
Readville Yard 5 was a good site for the project as it had previously been contaminated and cannot now be used for residential development, Donaghy said. The MBTA got the land as a part of the state’s takeover of the railroad companies in the 1970s.
Remediation of the site involved removing harmful substances like lead and arsenic and took years to complete, according to Donaghy. That process was recently completed, he said.
Simultaneously, the MBTA is pursuing a similar arrangement for a smaller parcel of land in Revere and hopes to establish other solar sites on land it owns in Somerville and Billerica in the future, Donaghy said.
Donaghy and other MBTA officials are working to determine a realistic goal for how much of its energy use could come from renewable energy sources.
“We are pursuing any and all opportunities for the procurement of alternative energy,” Donaghy said.
Staff writer Dave Eisenstadter can be reached at 781-433-8336 or deisenstadter@wickedlocal.com. Like The Dedham Transcript on Facebook and follow @DedhamTranscrip on Twitter.
