SunEdison, Inc. (NYSE: SUNE), has announced the completion of a 1.8 megawatt DC solar farm; constructed on a remediated EPA Superfund site in New Bedford, Massachusetts.
The US EPA describes a Superfund site as “an uncontrolled or abandoned place where hazardous waste is located”. The facility was developed on approximately 10 acres of land on what was previously Sullivan’s Ledge landfill.
Developed in partnership with BlueWave Capital, the City of New Bedford will purchase the net metering credits generated from the facility and is now another step close to its goal of sourcing 60% of its electricity needs from solar power. The savings generated from the Sullivan’s Ledge system are estimated to total over USD $76,000 annually and $1.8 million dollars over the term of the agreement.
“Projects like Sullivan Ledge demonstrate the opportunities that can be achieved through solar,” said Steve Raeder, SunEdison’s managing director of sales. “Working on a Superfund site can be challenging, but together with BlueWave Capital we successfully transformed a site that was once used to dispose of hazardous materials into a model solar project that will provide energy savings to the City of New Bedford for years to come.”
In other recent SunEdison news, the company announced last week a donation of solar panels to help power 10 Habitat for Humanity homes in Washington, D.C. SunEdison employees will also participate in two of the community project’s installations, including an all-female build team as part of a joint National Women in Solar Initiative.
Also last week, SunEdison announced the interconnection of two large-scale solar projects totaling 50 megawatts capacity in the UK. The solar farms will be added to the portfolio of TerraForm Power – a company formed to own and operate solar farms built by SunEdison Inc.
The clean electricity generated by the two UK projects will be purchased by Statkraft via a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA).
