SunEdison have executed power purchase agreements with 16 separate public housing authorities across Massachusetts, totaling 39.5 MWp capacity, to help low income households.
"SunEdison's work with public housing authorities in Massachusetts clearly demonstrates that the economic benefits of solar are for everyone," said Steve Raeder, managing director of sales, SunEdison North America. "We're proud to provide long term utility savings to low income housing across the commonwealth."
"These housing authorities, and other members of the PowerOptions energy buying consortium, can hedge against the rising cost of electricity by adopting solar power," said Cynthia Arcate, PowerOptions president and chief executive officer.
Over the next 20 years, SunEdison's solar systems will save these housing authorities an estimated US$60 million in avoided electricity costs, and will provide a collective environmental benefit equivalent to reducing CO2 emissions by 1 million tons, or taking 200,000 cars off the road. Net metering credits will be generated by more than 10 solar systems installed at various locations across Massachusetts, and will be sold via 20 year power purchase agreements to housing authorities including: New Bedford, Brockton, Somerville, Barnstable, Fairhaven, Fall River, Gardner, Leominster, Northampton, Plymouth, Somerset, and Winchendon. Net metering credits allow customers to realize the financial benefits of solar energy even when the system is not located at the customer's site.
SunEdison and its financing partners, including TerraForm Power, will be the owner-operators of the systems. Once operational, many of the solar systems will be managed by the SunEdison Renewable Operation Center (ROC), which provides global 24/7 asset management, monitoring and reporting services. Data collected from the ROC is used to continuously improve the company's products, project designs and service offerings.