DANVILLE — Norwich Solar recently announced that the Danville School, Cabot High School and Twinfield Union School will be receiving Net Metering Credits from a 500 kilowatt solar project built next to the Danville School.
The solar project will further enable the schools’ support of renewable energy and associated educational opportunities for students.
Danville resident Doug LaMothe is hosting the array, and installation of the project will be completed this year.
The schools are enrolled as customers of the project through a Net Metering Agreement.
This agreement provides the schools long-term savings with no upfront costs or operational obligations.
The net metering credits generated will be applied to the three schools’ Green Mountain Power electric bills each month, and will save approximately $500,000 in electricity costs over the 25 years.
“Danville, Cabot and Twinfield Schools are pleased to be in partnership with Norwich Solar and to be sharing the output of a solar farm with their sister schools in Caledonia Central SU,” Mark Tucker, Superintendent at the Caledonia Central Supervisory Union said. “All three schools had looked into solar as an energy source in the past.”
Norwich Solar in partnership with and financing from Mascoma Bank is currently completing construction of the array.
This type of public/private partnership leads to more local economic development by leveraging federal tax dollars into the Vermont economy.
The clean energy generated from the solar project will be fed directly into the Green Mountain Power electric distribution system which benefits all Vermonters, and the Renewable Energy Credits (REC’s) produced by the solar project will be transferred to the utility helping Vermont achieve its in-state renewable energy goals.
Vermont currently generates the least amount of electricity of any state, and imports >$2B of energy each year.
