Syncarpha Capital LLC, Borrego Solar Systems Inc. and Renewable Energy Massachusetts LLC (REM) have completed a 6 MW solar array located on the former Palmer Metropolitan Airfield in Palmer, Mass.
According to the companies, the Palmer Airfield Solar Project is unique in that it is both the first and the largest Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER)-qualified brownfield project under the state’s SREC II solar energy incentive program. The project site was cleaned up after 75 years of airfield operations dating back to the 1920s.
The Town of Palmer will be receiving real and personal property tax revenue of approximately $2 million over the 20-year project term, and the landowner, JenJill LLC, which paid for the site’s cleanup, will benefit from the long-term ground lease.
Three public entities – the Town of Leicester, the Town of Spencer and Worcester State University – will together purchase all of the net-metering credits from the energy generated by the project. Syncarpha Capital, a developer, owner, operator and financier of utility-scale solar facilities, will finance, own and operate the Palmer Airfield facility.
“The Palmer Airfield Solar Project provides an excellent example of the multiple benefits created by the fostering of renewable energy by the commonwealth of Massachusetts and its implementation,” says Cliff Chapman, managing partner at Syncarpha Capital. “Not only will multiple public-sector entities benefit financially and directly from this project, but, in addition, underutilized remediated brownfield land will now be used to provide positive environmental impact. Syncarpha and our development team partners are proud to a part of this endeavor.”
Borrego Solar built the array and negotiated and finalized off-taker agreements with the Town of Leicester and the Town of Spencer.
REM, with assistance from Syncarpha Capital, gained site control and negotiated the lease with the landowner, performed all project-development functions including permitting, initiated the National Grid interconnection process, cemented Worcester State University as a key energy off-taker, and secured the DOER’s SREC II Brownfield Qualification designation for the site.
Photo courtesy of Borrego Solar
