Jun 22 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Dick Lindsay The Berkshire Eagle, Pittsfield, Mass.



The region's largest solar power station will soon reduce Pittsfield's dependency on fossil fuels and could jumpstart the development of the William Stanley Business Park.

Western Massachusetts Electric Co. has begun work on the 1.8-megawatt Silver Lake Solar Facility on Silver Lake Boulevard, an eight-acre site jointly owned by WMECO and the Pittsfield Economic Development Authority. WMECO owns six of the acres, and PEDA owns the other two located in the business park. A WMECO utility substation, sandwiched between the two parcels will distribute the alternative energy.

The PEDA parcel was once part of General Electric's former power transformer facility. The city agency has cleaned up the 52-acre site and made it ready for new business ventures such as the solar project.

"This is the ultimate in recycling," said Mayor James M. Ruberto during a ground-breaking ceremony held Monday at the site. "We've taken a piece of ground once part of remediation and turned it into green energy."

 "This is very benign technology that's a good re-use of a brownfield site," said Peter Clarke, president and CEO of WMECO. "We've taken [the property] from being a liability to becoming an asset."

Clarke said the site preparation for the estimated $10 million to $12 million project will be finished by July 1 and all 6,500 solar panels should be installed by early October.

The utility expects the facility will have the

capacity to produce enough energy to serve 300 homes in Pittsfield -- outperforming the 1,100 similar projects in New England. It is the first of six large-scale solar power facilities that WMECO intends to build in Western Massachusetts.

The company claims the Pittsfield project will also generate approximately $150,000 in property tax revenue for the city.

Overall, the state wants 250 megawatts of solar energy projects installed by 2017. Under the Green Communities Act, each Massachusetts utility company may own up to 50 megawatts of solar generation, subject to approval by state utility regulators.

The Silver Lake Solar Facility is the first entity located at the William Stanley Business Park of the Berkshires, managed by PEDA, which was formed 12 years ago to oversee the park's development.

"The solar project has generated interest in the William Stanley Business Park, especially from green and eco-friendly types of business," said William Hines Sr., PEDA's interim executive director.

State Sen. Benjamin B. Downing, D-Pittsfield, cited how the Berkshires must seek out alternative energy sources to reduce the cost of doing business in Pittsfield and throughout the county.

"Energy issues are jobs issues," Downing said.

Meanwhile, the city is using federal economic stimulus funds to develop a smaller solar power facility at its sewage treatment plant on Holmes Road. Public Works Commissioner Bruce I. Collingwood said that project is currently in the design phase, with construction scheduled to begin next spring.

To reach Dick Lindsay:

rlindsay@berkshireeagle.com,

or (413) 496-6233.

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