On Thursday, June 8, 2017, Reading Municipal Light Department (RMLD) held a ribbon cutting ceremony to commemorate the completion and activation of its first community Solar Choice project. RMLD’s Solar Choice community solar project allows RMLD customers who don’t have the ability to install their own solar panels the opportunity to share in the benefits of a large solar array. The introduction of this and future Solar Choice projects furthers RMLD’s ongoing commitment to Get Greener, Go Paperless, and Be Efficient.
The one megawatt Solar Choice project located at 326 Ballardvale Street in Wilmington consists of over 4,000 solar panels. RMLD is pleased to offer this resource as a means for its customers to support locally produced, affordable clean energy, which is beneficial to the environment. Solar Choice is also beneficial to RMLD and its customers because it allows for the generation of electricity within RMLD’s system, offsetting wholesale transmission and capacity costs which impact RMLD’s power supply costs and in turn, electricity rates. This is particularly important during expensive peak demand times.
Five hundred RMLD customers signed up to participate in the project and receive the benefits of the community solar array. In addition to supporting clean energy, participating customers are expected to receive net credits on their electric bill of approximately $300 over a ten-year period. RMLD plans to launch similar projects in the future to provide more of its customers with the opportunity to participate in community solar.
This Solar Choice project is a result of successful collaboration across multiple organizations. RMLD would like to recognize and thank the following parties for their contribution to and support of the project: The Town of Wilmington; ECA Solar, the renewable energy company that constructed the array; Altus Power America, Inc., the renewable energy company that owns and operates the array; Novaya Real Estate Ventures, LLC, the owner of the commercial building where the array is located; and CBRE/New England, the property management company for the commercial building where the array is located.
More information about RMLD’s Solar Choice program may be found at http://www.rmld.com/customer-service/pages/solar-choice-program.
from left to right: Joe DiFraia, CBRE/New England; Joyce Mulvaney, RMLD; Coleen O’Brien, GM, RMLD; Dennis Kelley, RMLD Citizen’s Advisory Board; Phil Pacino, Chair, RMLD Board of Commissioners; Vincent Moschella, ECA Solar; Todd Fryatt, ECA Solar; Shawn Hawthorne, Novaya Real Estate Ventures, LLC; Claude Colp, ECA Solar; Tom Athan, Altus Power America, Inc.; Tom Ollila, RMLD; Elaine Charlebois, Altus Power America, Inc.; Michael Champoux, Chair, Town of Wilmington Board of Selectmen; Jane Parenteau, RMLD; Hamid Jaffari, RMLD; Venu Lolla, ECA Solar; Andrew Culkin, ECA Solar; Gina Snyder, Reading Climate Advisory Committee; Andrew Bunnell Esq., ECA Solar; Jonathan Helmuth, ECA Solar; Cammy Peterson, Metropolitan Area Planning Council
