All across Massachusetts, cities, towns, and businesses have benefitted from federal funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The clean energy projects already completed as a result of this funding ensure the availability of sustainable, reliable, and homegrown energy sources. One such project that completed late last year was a solar photovoltaic (PV) installation at the Wellesley Municipal Light Plant (WMLP). The WMLP is responsible for providing electricity to Wellesley residents and businesses and is now generating renewable energy being used to power the WMLP site.
With almost 60 percent of the project costs covered by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program, a program funded by federal stimulus dollars and allocated by the Department of Energy Resources, WMLP installed a 50-kilowatt solar PV system on the roof of their building. This installation, which consists of 286 panels, will produce enough electricity to power the garage and warehouse during non-peak hours and is estimated to decrease Wellesley’s carbon footprint by 45 tons per year. Check out the video below to find out more about Wellesley’s clean energy goals and to see how the project came together.
As with many of the ARRA-funded projects, you can also see real-time electricity production online. It is great to see that WMLP generated their highest kWh per month this past April when the system created over 6,000 kWh of electricity. I’m looking forward to watching that number rise over the summer months!