Boston Area Partnership Leads to Largest Ever Renewable-Energy Project in U.S. Through an Alliance of Diverse Organizations
[Boston, MA] Boston Medical Center, MIT, and Post Office Square Redevelopment Corporation have formed an alliance to buy electricity from a large new solar power installation, adding carbon-free energy to the grid and demonstrating a partnership model for other organizations in climate change mitigation efforts.
The agreement will enable the construction of a 650-acre, 60-megawatt solar farm on farmland in North Carolina. Called Summit Farms, the facility is the largest renewable-energy project ever built in the United States through an alliance of diverse organizations, and is expected to begin delivering power into the grid by the end of this year.
The purchase of power from this facility’s 255,000 solar panels will neutralize 100% of electricity consumption for both Boston Medical Center (BMC), a 496-bed academic medical center in Boston’s South End, and Post Office Square Redevelopment Corporation (POS), which manages an underground parking garage and a park in downtown Boston. MIT’s purchase of power from this facility will be equivalent to 40% of the Institute’s current electricity use.
Boston Medical Center’s participation and accomplishment raises the bar for the 20 Boston-area hospitals and health systems that are working together to reduce their carbon emissions and energy consumption as part of Boston’s Green Ribbon Commission Health Care Working Group. The Commission is a group of business, institutional, and civic leaders in Boston working to develop shared strategies for fighting climate change in coordination with the City’s Climate Action Plan. With funding from the Barr Foundation, the Commission sponsored a $100,000 Renewable Energy Leadership Prize designed to encourage large Boston-area energy users to develop renewable energy purchasing strategies. Competition for the prize was the catalyst that led A Better City to organize this complex and innovative renewable energy purchasing arrangement.
MIT has committed to buying 73% of the power generated by the new array, with BMC purchasing 26% and POS purchasing the remainder. MIT’s purchase of 44 megawatts is among the largest publicly announced purchases of solar energy by any American college or university, and the largest among academic institutions in the eastern United States. In aggregate, the expected 146 gigawatt-hours of emissions-free power per year will result in the abatement of 119,500 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions — the equivalent of removing 25,250 cars from the road.
Benefits in Massachusetts and North Carolina
Boston Medical Center was already on target to reduce its emissions by at least 50% by 2018 through a $300 million clinical campus redesign that includes upgrades to heating, cooling, and ventilation systems, a new biodigester to compost food waste, and other improvements. The additional carbon footprint reduction achieved through this renewable energy agreement is expected to make BMC carbon-neutral by the end of 2018.
“Boston Medical Center is proud to join MIT and the Post Office Square Redevelopment Corporation in this historic renewable-energy agreement,” says Robert Biggio, vice president of facilities and support services at BMC. “This purchase is equivalent to 100% of BMC’s projected electric consumption, making us the greenest hospital in Boston and on pace to become the first carbon-neutral hospital in New England upon the completion of our campus redesign. This is the right thing to do for the quality of life and health of our patients and our planet.”
While 41 potential renewable-energy projects were evaluated by MIT, BMC, and POS — some of which were much closer to the Boston area — this installation had a number of significant advantages: It uses a larger contiguous area than was available in the Northeast; the land — formerly farmland — was depleted, and by lying fallow for many years may again become useful for agriculture; the installation is on posts that can easily be removed after the 25-year term, allowing an evaluation at that point of best future uses of the land; and the local companies handling the design and installation of the solar panels have a proven track record of building and operating similar facilities, minimizing uncertainties about the facility’s cost and output.
In addition, the existing power grid in North Carolina has significantly higher greenhouse-gas emissions: More of that region’s energy comes from coal-fired plants than in New England. This means that more emissions will be displaced for a given amount of solar power than for a similar facility built in the Northeast.
“We have reduced our energy consumption substantially in the last eight years,” says Pamela Messenger, general manager of Friends of Post Office Square. “Entering into a renewable power purchase agreement was our next step, but our consumption is too small to do it alone. It is exciting to join forces with two industry leaders, allowing us to mitigate 100% of our electricity footprint — a milestone we couldn’t achieve alone.”
CustomerFirst Renewables designed, structured, and led the negotiation of the energy solution. “This solution shows how by acting together, organizations across industries and of vastly different size can capture the benefits of large-scale renewable energy that may have been out of reach if they had pursued renewable solutions alone,” says Gary Farha, president and CEO of CustomerFirst Renewables. “Together, we have created a roadmap for other diverse, urban institutions to access renewable energy in a way that will create change in the makeup of our country’s electrical grid. Our team was delighted to help these organizations navigate the complex waters of aggregating demand for renewable-energy procurement.”
