Update on the Solar PV project at the Needham RTS

Although there aren’t any visible indications yet, the project to install a 3.7 Megawatt solar PV system on the closed landfill at the Needham RTS continues to move forward.

• The Town and the project developer, Brightfields, are working through the final details of a service agreement with the financing provider for the project.
• The Town has received the required post-closure usage permit from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection allowing the project to be built on the landfill.
• The Town has done some initial site preparation work.
• The project has an interconnection service agreement from NStar.
• Legislation to increase the net metering cap passed at the end of the legislative session in July and was signed into law by the Governor. This ensures that the project (and others around the state) will be able to sell the electricity generated back to the grid at a favorable rate.

Once the required financing agreements are complete and the building permit is issued, construction will begin. The Town and Brightfields are aiming to begin construction in October, which would mean that Needham will begin generating clean electricity at the RTS by late spring 2015. The installed system is expected to generate about 4,500 Megawatt Hours (MWh) of electricity each year. That’s enough electricity to power the High School (the Town’s largest building by far), the Pollard School, the Newman School and the Eliot School.