New Hampshire town energizes landfill solar site | Projects Weekly
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This week on a post-Labor Day Projects Weekly, Encore Renewable Energy and the town of Derry, New Hampshire have breathed new life into a closed and capped city landfill. In Appalachia, MN8 Energy has partnered with Eos and Google for a solar and storage project in West Virginia. The State University of New York’s Oneonta campus is also getting a new solar installation, courtesy of Canadian developer PowerBank Corp., and in Texas, OCI Energy and Arava Power have broken ground on a new project near Houston. Finally in California, the small town of Pescadero is set to construct one of the state’s largest microgrid projects. Keep reading for all the details!
Small California town set to build one of the state’s biggest microgrids
WestLight Energy has completed funding for a community microgrid in the rural town of Pescadero, California, which will total 1.5 MW of solar and an 8 MWh battery system.
WestLight officials say Pescadero has been facing recurring power outages for years, which can be especially disruptive for more rural towns and communities. Construction on Pescadero’s microgrid system will likely begin in mid-2029 and wrap up by mid-2031.
Bright spot: A town of just 595 people as of the 2020 U.S. census, Pescadero is set to receive one of the first community-specific microgrids in the United States. Officials say the northern California ranching town will use the microgrid’s resources to provide energy resilience for nearly the entire town.
“When a community faces a challenge that doesn’t have an obvious solution, local public agencies like WestLight Energy have an opportunity to bring partners together,” says Shawn Marshall, CEO of WestLight Energy. “That’s exactly what happened here. This project shows what’s possible when community organizations, local government, utilities and clean energy partners work toward a common goal.”
Irma Rodriguez Mitton, executive director of Arriba South Coast, will serve as the project’s community liaison once construction is complete. Mitton helped secure a Microgrid Incentive Program grant for $3.5 million for the projecct. She has been in consistent partnership with the town’s residents for a solution to the outages.
“Frequent outages affect every part of daily life for families, businesses, and community services,” said Mitton. “Things like disrupting school learning days and store operations, spoiled food, and closure of community health and social services offices place a huge burden on our residents. We knew we could solve the problem, but we needed really strong, community-minded technical partners to help us.”
Encore completes landfill solar project in New Hampshire
Encore Renewable Energy and the town of Derry, New Hampshire, have cut the ribbon on a 2.25 MW solar project, built on the town’s closed and capped municipal landfill.
Encore representatives expect the project to save Derry’s taxpayers about $4 million in electricity costs over the next 25 years. The project, one of the largest solar installations in the Granite State, will generate enough electricity to offset the power consumption of 500 New Hampshirite houses.
“Landfills like this one are often untapped resources in the clean energy transition,” says Chad Farrell, founder and president of Encore Renewable Energy. “The reality is that landfills such as this one in Derry offer cleared, unshaded land that can’t be used for much else. This site checks every box: sufficient acreage, good sun exposure, and proximity to the electrical infrastructure needed to get that power where it’s needed.”
Bright spot: The project traces all the way back to the Derry NetZero Task Force, which the city says is entirely comprised of local volunteers. The committee selected Encore from a field of seven developers with a bidding process stretching back to 2021.
“Under the leadership of Josh Bourdon, the Derry Town Council set forth an aggressive goal of being net zero by 2025 but with a caveat of saving money for the residents of Derry,” says Jeff Moulton, chair of the Derry NetZero Task Force. “I am pleased to have led a dedicated group of volunteers who were able to put together a design and project that will provide 100% of the town’s electricity needs for the next 25 years, while saving the town $5-10 million over the life of the project.”
MN8 Energy, Google, and Eos install utility-scale project in West Virginia
Solar developer MN8 Energy, battery manufacturer Eos, and AI and tech titan Google have partnered for a utility-scale solar plus storage project in West Virginia.
MN8 will own and operate the 86 MW utility-scale project, with Eos providing 10 MW / 100 MWh of battery support with its zinc-based Z3 models. The company will also provide another 70 MW / 280 MWh through more traditional lithium-ion battery storage. The collaborative effort will dispatch capacity to the grid while serving Google’s data centers in the northern Appalachian region, including the planned project in West Virginia.
“At Google, we’re committed to backing solutions that both serve our data center capacity needs and accelerate progress toward cleaner, more affordable energy systems,” says Lucia Tian, director of advanced energy technologies at Google. “This collaboration with MN8 and Eos aims to deploy a smart portfolio of round-the-clock technology solutions to help power our digital infrastructure, while creating meaningful economic benefits for West Virginia.”
Bright spot: The project will also assist in Google’s efforts to accelerate the commercialization of long-duration energy storage technology, the company says. The digital giant aims to “rapidly bring its potential to communities everywhere” and generate reliable and affordable electricity to support the straining U.S. energy grid.
“This project reflects what MN8 does best: understanding a customer’s unique energy profile and building a solution around it,” said Jon Yoder, President and CEO of MN8 Energy. “Because Google was willing to pair next-generation storage with utility-scale solar, we could engineer proven and emerging technologies into one dispatchable resource – and deliver clean, around-the-clock power where the grid needs it most.”
OCI Energy and Arava Power partners break ground on SunRoper Solar in Houston
OCI Energy, Arava Power, and a group of project development partners have begun construction on SunRoper Solar, a 347 MWdc solar project in southern Texas’s Wharton County.
The team expects the project to begin operations before the end of 2027, officials say, with the site providing electricity to a Fortune 100 company under a long-term power purchase agreement. Once operational, the project will contribute “significant” power generation capacity to the Lone Star State’s ERCOT grid.
“SunRoper demonstrates how strategic partnerships can help meet Texas’ growing demand for electricity through investments in critical energy infrastructure,” says OCI president Sabah Bayatli, President. “Today’s groundbreaking also marks the beginning of an important new chapter for the partnership between OCI Energy and Arava Power and reflects the strength of collaboration across development, financing, construction and energy procurement.”
Bright spot: The project aims to aid the Greater Houston metropolitan area, one of the largest in the country, with its significant power needs. OCI representatives say the area is one of the largest electricity demand centers in the U.S., and that SunRoper will be a major boon to the region’s needs as they continue to spike.
“SunRoper represents another important step in Arava Power’s evolution from a pioneer of Israel’s solar market into a growing international renewable energy platform. Our collaboration with OCI Energy has been instrumental in advancing this project and reflects the kind of strong local partnership that supports our long-term growth in the U.S. market,” says Ilan Zidkony, CEO of Arava Power.
PowerBank receives New York Power Authority contract for SUNY Oneonta project
Canadian solar powerhouse PowerBank Corp. has received a contract by the State University of New York (SUNY) at Oneonta, for the development and subsequent construction of a 1.63 MWdc ground-mounted solar project.
“The construction of this 1.6 MW solar array is an important step forward in SUNY Oneonta’s commitment to decarbonizing our campus and advancing New York State’s ambitious clean-energy goals,” says Lachlan Squair, AVP of facilities management at SUNY Oneonta. “By expanding our on-site renewable energy generation, we are reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening the sustainability and resilience of our campus, and helping build a cleaner energy future for New York.”
Bright spot: Administered through the New York Power Authority (NYPA), the project will be the first megawatt-scale, on-site solar array at SUNY Oneonta. Once online, PowerBank expects that the site will deliver enough electricity to power about 205 homes annually.
“Winning a competitive solicitation of this kind comes down to execution history,” says PowerBank president and COO Andrew van Doorn. “Our engineers and construction professionals have spent decades building and commissioning complex energy infrastructure across New York State, and we are proud to be delivering the first MW-scale on-site solar array for a campus that has made a central commitment to use of more clean energy generation resources.”
