Earlier we wrote about how Taos, N.M, is establishing solar arrays that could service up to 18,500 homes. Mount Desert Island in Maine is doing the same on a smaller scale. Communities like these are worthy of the Sandwich Climate Crisis Coalition (SCCC) to watch and perhaps emulate as we move towards our goal for Sandwich, N.H of 100% reliance on renewable sources of electricity by 2030 and for all other energy needs, including heating and transportation, by 2050. Learn more from the both video and a recent newspaper article summarized below.
Here is more about Mount Desert Island from a Jan. 1, 2020 article in the Mount Desert Islander:
TREMONT — Details are still being worked out, but soon residents here will be able to purchase shares for their home or business in a proposed community solar farm located next to the one that currently powers municipal facilities.
Phase One of the solar project was completed at the beginning of 2019 and included installation of about 500 solar panels on about a third of the 3-acre parcel that was once the town’s landfill…
At the beginning of 2019, eight buildings owned by the town, including the school, town office and harbormaster’s building, began being powered by the solar array constructed on the closed landfill located next to the town office.
In Phase II, approved by all five members of the Board of Selectmen, the town hopes to also meet the needs of 40 residential homes too, if enough residents invest in the array. Sundog Solar of Searsport is doing the construction. Selectman Kevin Buck told the Islander: “We can offer people a really good rate, without up front costs with the model we are looking at.”