Lowell General Hospital is partnering with a Boston-based solar developer on two of its five new solar projects across the state that could save the hospital up to $100,000 a year.
In addition to providing solar credits available for purchase by other companies, BlueWave — which has grown quickly since its founding in 2010 — sets up what it calls “solar community farms,” filling vacant plots of land with solar panels and reducing the local community's electric bill.
The five new BlueWave projects are in Palmer, Haverhill, Dighton, and Douglas. According to a release, the latest projects will add 19.8 MWDC of generation and 29.7 MW/hr of storage to the power grid, the equivalent of 13,000 tons of carbon emissions avoided annually.
The new projects use BlueWaves' dual-use solar design, which BlueWave calls its “agrovoltaic” projects. The solar company installs solar panels on farmland without obstructing farm operations by allowing crops to grow beneath the panels and animals to graze.
"The amount of energy generated by these projects is meaningful, ensuring greater access to community solar projects and farmers' continued success with their land,” CEO and co-founder of BlueWave Trevor Hardy said in a release.
Developers need long-term commitments to get a bank loan; these long-term commitments can come from places like Lowell General Hospital, which can cover a 15-20-year mortgage. For Blue Wave, Lowell General Hospital is serving as an anchor customer for the two sites in Palmer and Haverhill.
As an anchor customer, LGH receives 50% of the energy capacity from the Palmer project through community solar bill credits and ensures the solar farm remains operational. Once the Haverhill project is complete, LGH will determine its energy capacity percentage.
Despite receiving 50% of the energy capacity from two BlueWave projects, all the electricity goes to the surrounding community.
In return for ensuring BlueWave can build and sustain its projects, LGH receives energy savings of $10,000 to $100,000 per year, according to Kevin Foley, director of plant operations and property at Lowell General Hospital.
“As an anchor tenant, we get a little piece of that, and on tens of millions of kilowatt hours a year, it adds up into some nice savings that we get to lower our costs, and lowering our costs helps us serve our patients down the long run,” said Foley.
Investing in the new BlueWave projects also helps LGH invest in other sustainability projects, like changing its lightbulbs to LEDs and updating materials with more sustainable replacements, according to Foley.
“The solar community is more than just us. It's where they use the electricity, too,” said Foley. “And it benefits us all because the more solar you get, the cleaner the energy mix will be in Massachusetts and New England.”
