Six Megawatt Solar Array online at Treasure Valley Scout Reservation, MA

[RememberSchiff]

Started in 2011, the Mohegan Council Solar Project six-megawatt installation at Treasure Valley was switched on June 30,2014. Nexamp, a solar energy services firm from Boston, developed, designed and built the array with financing from SunEdison which owns the solar installation and leases 35 acres from Treasure Valley Scout Reservation (1600 acres) in central Massachusetts.

 

"For the next 20 years, SunEdison will sell the energy produced by the array to the Upper Blackstone Water Pollution Abatement District, the Dudley- Charlton Regional School District and the Southern Worcester County Educational Collaborative.

 

Jeff Hotchkiss, Scout Executive/ CEO of the Mohegan Council said the Boy Scouts will receive a sustainable source of income to expand their programs and the money will help cash flow and add to the capitalization fund and endowment fund,

 

The Mohegan Council will also include an educational initiative for campers at Treasure Valley and in local schools with a goal of fostering better stewardship of natural resources. An alternative energy educational curriculum is also being developed by the Mohegan Council, which will develop the curriculum and fund teachers’ salaries in cooperation with the Christa McAuliffe Center at Framingham State University, The Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics at Harvard University and National Grid."

 

http://www.thelandmark.com/news/2014...ans_a_bri.html

[SSScout]

Commendable.

It took'em three years to build it?

[RememberSchiff]

Commendable.

It took'em three years to build it?

 

Not to build, but to get studies done, permits approved (Conservation Commission, Planning Board, EPA). Also negotiations among partners and electricity buyers took time. Even a building a new school here in Massachusetts takes years to get approvals.

 

November 2011 http://www.telegram.com/article/2011...WS/111059982/0

About 30 acres of the 1,600-plus-acre Boys Scouts of America reservation will be cleared for 20,500 solar panels, which will produce 6 megawatts of energy  the equivalent of powering 900 homes for a year. The panels will be installed and managed by Nexamp Inc., which will rent the land from the Scouts' Mohegan Council. Once all permits are in place, the project is expected to be operational by December 2012. The town of Rutland passed a zoning bylaw on solar panels two weeks ago.

 

May, 2012 Neighbors express concerns

http://www.thelandmark.com/news/2012...ar_panel_.html

 

April, 2013 Comprehensive study by engineering students at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI)

https://www.wpi.edu/Pubs/E-project/A...MQP_Report.pdf

[SSScout]

Yeah, I can see that. Local school installed a solar array, and I did some research for that (it is just "there", now, no longer an eyecatcher as you drive by), and the timing was a little shorter, but similar.

Sandy Spring, MDâ€â€May 2, 2012â€â€

Sandy Spring Friends School(SSFS), a pre-K through 12 coed college preparatory Quaker school in Montgomery County, has announced plans to install more than 2,000 solar panels on the school’s 140-acre campus.

The 473.7 kW solar photovoltaic system will be ground-mounted and grid tied with an estimated output of 600,790 kWh. The estimated carbon offset of a system this size is 414 metric tons which is equal to almost 82 passenger vehicles per year and 963 barrels of oil consumed.

http://standardsolar.com/node/1921

 

Students, faculty and members of the Friends House community gathered at Sandy Spring Friends School on Oct. 24, 2012 for a ceremonial “flipping of the switch.â€Â

 

http://www.gazette.net/article/20121031/NEWS/710319433/1124/sandy-spring-friends-school-shines-with-solar-power&template=gazette

[Old_OX_Eagle83]

This is a win all the way around! It's great to see BSA making smart choices, leading the way into a better future ... and getting in the headlines for doing it.