Worcester, MA – In April, IBEW Local 96 signatory contractor Mass. Electric Construction Company completed electrical installations for the 8.1MW solar farm atop the city of Worcester’s capped 25-acre former landfill. The project, among Massachusetts’ largest municipality-owned solar arrays, is comprised of 28,600 solar panels mounted on 1,430 solar racks. Mass. Electric’s crew of 65 Local 96 journeymen electricians provided installations in the fast-track seven-month project. Project manager Mike Sanders and project superintendent Mark Delisle headed the project team. Borrego Solar Systems, Inc. of Lowell, Mass., was the project’s solar developer.
Aerial of 8.1MW Worcester Landfill Solar Project / photo: Wayne Dion, Dion Photography & Mass Electric Construction
As reported in the Worcester Telegram, John W. Odell, Worcester’s director of energy and asset management, estimates the project will generate approximately 10 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually. The electricity, fed from the Worcester solar farm to National Grid, will offset approximately $2 million in annual electricity costs for Worcester, equivalent to about 20 percent of the city’s municipal electricity budget.
The total project cost of $27 million has an expected payback of only about six years, in part due to the higher value of the Solar Renewable Energy Credits (SRECs) that were utilized in the project’s planning and financing stages.
The solar project is undergoing final testing and a ribbon cutting will be scheduled in late July or August when the facility goes online.
