Following a state government push toward green energy, Solarize Mass-Boston doubled residential solar contracts in the city over four months, with 116 solar projects coming to Boston houses soon.
The program was instituted in 17 communities throughout Massachusetts, said Lourdes Lopez, a community outreach manager for Boston Mayor Thomas Menino.
“We completed the program successfully with 116 contracts with a capacity of 522 kilowatts,” she said.
Matt Kakley, communications coordinator at the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, said the program’s goal is to give people the option to use renewable energy.
“The idea behind Solarize is to really let people know how solar energy works and the economics behind it,” he said. “People can save money with a program like this and get all these environmental benefits of clean energy.”
Kakley said he saw the impact of the program throughout Massachusetts.
“Throughout the whole state, we saw 5.1 megawatts of clean renewable energy generated as a result of the program,” he said.
Estimates claim 5.1 megawatts of energy can power 807 homes a year, according to the MassCEC.
As of Nov. 1, Mass. had almost 91 megawatts of installed solar capacity, according to the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources. This represents a 2,400 percent increase in capacity since 2008.
The 2008 Green Communities Law requires that 7 percent of power purchased by electric companies must be clean by 2016. This mandate is being addressed through programs like Solarize Mass-Boston, among others.
Solarize Mass-Boston is a partnership between the city of Boston, the MassCEC and the DOER. Lopez said many residents were pleased to make the switch to solar in the Solarize Mass-Boston campaign.
“It was really wonderful and a great experience,” she said. “There was a really good demand for the Solarize project and people were responding well.”
Lopez also said the plan was economically efficient, and that customers could pay as little as 11 cents for a kilowatt of power.
“They [MassCEC and DOER] offer tax rebates for the installations,” she said. “The most popular program for going solar was the power purchase agreement.”
These power purchase agreements allow solar hosts to sell extra electricity for a profit, according to the Environmental Protection Agency website.
Mary-Leah Assad, Menino’s press secretary, said the city’s participation in the program was important.
“The city of Boston and Mayor Menino’s enthusiastic participation in the program has made a difference and helped promote the benefits of solar in Massachusetts,” she said in an email.
Kakley said the success of the projects would not have been possible without the help of Menino.
“Those projects were obviously with the mayor’s help,” he said. “He was a great advocate for the program. He and his administration really put a lot of effort. They really adopted the program and showed people how much he was behind it.”
Menino was one of the 116 residents that committed to solar power, Kakley said.
“For someone like Mayor Menino to take place in the program himself and sign a contract to put a panel on his roof obviously gives credibility to the program and helps to drive up publicly and get more people to participate,” he said.
With education and proper funding, Kakley said an expansion of the Solarize project could happen in the future.
“Right now we’re actually in the process of trying to figure out what works and how we want the program to proceed,” he said. “There’s definitely going to be Solarize next year, we’re just trying to figure what’s it going to look like.”
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