SOLAR POWER INSTALLATION PROPOSED FOR BRUNSWICK LANDING
Thu, 11/17/2011 - 13:41 — Kay Mann
The Power Company (TPC) of Washington, Maine has
proposed a 500Kw solar-voltaic array to be sited at the
former Brunswick Naval Air Station, now known as Brunswick Landing. The Power Company is engaged in negotiations with the Mid-Coast Regional Redevelopment Authority (MRRA) in securing a lease for land to site the ground mounted array.
“We have been working with different communities to find a situation where we can build a demonstration project that can show the potential of solar development of this scale”, says TPC owner Rich Simon.
TPC has recently finished feasibility studies for the former Loring Air-Force Base in Limestone, as well as a super fund site in the Town of Winthrop. “New England States have very different policies and programs to encourage renewable energy. While Maine has a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), to encourage renewable energy development, it is different than most other states in that it does not offer a premium for energy produced from solar," says Simon. "Solar energy has many advantages over other renewable energy technologies including; utilizing
existing grid capacity, scalability, readily available sites, no environmental impact, low maintenance costs and reliability of equipment. Our industry is at a point that we still need government policy to incentivize development. Sometime in the not so distant future, solar for electric power generation costs will be on par with other conventional technologies. It is because of supportive policies that have been in place around the world for the last decade or so that the price of equipment has come down significantly”.
MRRA has targeted seven industries for development at Brunswick Landing. Renewable Energy is one of the main targeted industries. In keeping with their vision, they have recently unveiled The Brunswick Renewable Energy Center (BREC). BREC hopes to become an incubator for renewable energy technologies by encouraging development, manufacturing, testing and research for these technologies.
“We see our project as a very good fit with MRRA’s clean energy vision.” says Scott Hays, financial strategist of TPC.
MRRA is also working closely with local organizations involved in developing Maine’s clean energy future. One of these groups is the Environmental and Energy