Yes, you read that right!
Our local municipal utility,
Hudson Light & Power has installed a 2,280 Watt rated grid-tied photovoltaic array on the roof of the Cherry Street power plant. With assistance from local resource
altE Store, HLP installed the rooftop array using a ballast mount on the flat roof of the Cherry Street plant last fall. The system took first light in mid-November and has been pumping Watt-hours into the local utility grid since then. It will generate approximately 2,500 kilowatt-hours of energy annually.
The PV array consists of 12 Evergreen Solar 190W Spruce series modules.
Evergreen, based here in Massachusetts, produces modules using their proprietary string ribbon technology which realizes lower embodied energy per module. If HLP had been a residential customer in a publicly-owned utility district (e.g., NSTAR), they could have applied for rebates from
Commonwealth Solar, the state's solar renewables rebate fund, part of Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. By using Evergreen modules, their rebate would have included a premium of (currently) $0.25 per Watt. The HLP system also includes a Solectria inverter (below), another made-in-Massachusetts component, which would further increase the rebate amount.
Eric Pedersen and James Cormican (below, from left) of Hudson online renewable energy retailer, wholesaler, and educator, altE, provided sales quotes, technical design and installation assistance and sold HLP some of the components for the system.
This PV system is the second grid-tied solar electric array in Hudson, though the first to be sanctioned and approved for operation. The first system, located on the Hudson Mill Building, the headquarters for altE, is a smaller, 600W array that saw first light after its installation by altE in May of 2007. Its official inauguration has been mired in red tape with the owners of the Mill Building but is expected to be turned on soon.
