Reaches an agreement with Inovateus Solar LLC to acquire an 80% ownership interest in a two-project 20 MWDC portfolio of solar farms in the Midwestern United States.
Alterra Power Corp. has reached an agreement with Inovateus Solar LLC to acquire an 80% ownership interest in a two-project 20 MWDC portfolio of solar farms in the Midwestern United States. Both projects are contracted under long-term, investment-grade power purchase agreements. Alterra is actively developing and arranging financing for the first project , a 7 MWDC site located in Indiana that is expected to finish construction by the end of 2016. The second project, a 13 MWDC site located in Michigan, is expected to be developed during 2017.
"We're pleased to develop these solar projects alongside Inovateus, and hope to extend this partnership to other U.S. projects," said Jon Schintler, Alterra's VP of Project Finance.
"The pairing of Alterra's technical and financing resources with Inovateus' project development and EPC expertise provides a compelling solar offering for utilities, municipalities, universities, and businesses in the Midwest and beyond," said TJ Kanczuzewski, president of Inovateus. "We're excited to get started on our first two projects and look forward to working together with Alterra on more projects in the future."
For nearly 300 years, First Parish in Bedford has enjoyed a warm and mutual bond with the town in which it stands.
Anchoring the common, the Unitarian Universalist church hosts community events, welcomes all comers to its Sunday services, and frequently serves as a venue for weddings and memorial services — not only for its own parishioners but also for community members who lack established religious connections.
But global warming may bring a chill to that relationship.
Last month, the town’s Historic District Commission denied a request from First Parish to install solar panels on the roof of its meetinghouse. The congregation, in turn, filed an appeal June 27 in Middlesex Superior Court, arguing that the decision violated members’ constitutional right to freely exercise their religious beliefs.
“We consider this to be a religious act,” said Dan Bostwick, spokesman for the church’s solar energy committee. “Stewardship of our natural environment is central to our faith. Unitarian Universalists, along with people of many faiths all over the world, are compelled by religious beliefs to take action to mitigate the effects of climate change. By installing solar panels to reduce carbon footprint, we are acting on our core spiritual beliefs.”
Members of the Historic District Commission did not respond to emails requesting comment.
In denying the application on June 1, however, the commission said that installation of solar panels on the roof would be “highly visible and incongruous to the historic aspect of the church and its architectural characteristics.”
Bostwick, a longtime Bedford resident whose study on reducing the church’s carbon footprint led to the request, said he did not anticipate the outcome.
“Our proposal goes to great lengths to balance respect for the historic importance of our building with the wish to reduce climate impact in light of the current environmental crisis,” he said.
Given the church meetinghouse’s prominence in the town center, First Parish members knew there would be questions about the visual impact to the 199-year-old building, constructed in 1817 after the parish’s original structure was destroyed by a windstorm.
But Bostwick, along with other members of his committee, believes they did all they could to meet any potential objections related to the visual impact of solar panels.
“The panels would be visible from only one side of the building, not the iconic front view. In addition, they are not the silver and blue shiny panels you usually see but a new product, all black, with a matte finish,” he said. “We planned to reshingle the roof in black to minimize the contrast. We presented the HDC with photographs, artists mockups and videos showing how little impact it would have.”
The wish to install solar panels isn’t just about saving money on heating the building, the Rev. John Gibbons pointed out.
“Although First Parish is Bedford’s oldest house of worship, we are a living institution that must remain relevant to the present and be accountable to the unprecedented environmental demands of the future,” he said in a statement. “Solar panels are an essential expression of our faith, to honor the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.”
First Parish has already restored the meetinghouse’s windows and installed new storm windows, insulation, and updates to the heating and air conditioning system, according to the complaint. The goal is for the solar panels to generate 75 percent of the parish’s energy needs from the sun — thereby allowing the congregation to remove four gas-fired HVAC units from the roof of the church buildings.
Several significant churches located in historic districts in other Massachusetts communities have received permission from their local commissions to install solar panels, according to the complaint, including South Church in Andover.
Other groups in Bedford supported First Parish’s plan. Letters of support in favor of the solar panel installation were filed with the Town Clerk by the Bedford Interfaith Clergy Association, the Bedford Chapter of Mothers Out Front, the Bedford Chamber of Commerce, and the Bedford Historic Preservation Commission.
The complaint asks the court to annul the Historic District Commission’s decision. First Parish also filed an Open Meeting Law complaint with the commission.
“First Parish regrets that it was necessary to file both complaints, and values its relationship with the town of Bedford,” the congregation said in a statement. But the congregation is “committed to pursuing all of its legal rights” to achieve its environmental goals.
Dovetail Solar & Wind built the 3,200-watt solar array on this Marietta Home. The Cleveland-based company began building more solar installations in other states after Ohio lawmakers "froze" the state's renewable energy rules. Now, lower prices for solar panels and bulk buying operations are increasing Ohio's solar business.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Ever since former President Jimmy Carter put solar thermal panels on the White House, some Americans have been dreaming of turning their roofs into solar electric generators and slashing their utility bills.
Now, it's happening and growing at a pace that even the experts would have questioned possible five years ago.
Spreading the solar gospel as Green Energy Ohio has done for years has helped keep small solar alive even after a federal tax credit for consumers expired and installers moved to build larger arrays for commercial customers and institutions and sought business opportunities out of state where solar was more supported.
Falling prices for a technology that becomes more efficient, powerful and sophisticated every year is at the root of the new growth in both home and commercial solar. In other words, the technology is about to change everything.
And with Congress's December 2015 extension of the 30 percent tax credit for homeowners as well as businesses, an explosion in home solar installations is under way.
It's even happening in Ohio -- a state where the two largest utilities have challenged home solar "net metering" rules at the Ohio Supreme Court, and where Republican lawmakers are trying to extend a two-year freeze on renewable energy mandates first passed in 2014.
The additional accelerator here is OH SUN, short for Ohio Solar United Neighborhoods, a drive organized by the DC-based Community Power Network, a solar advocate with roots going back to 2007.
Community Power Network has organized buying co-ops throughout DC, in Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. The group has been active in Ohio since the beginning of the year.
The co-ops are essentially "a non-profit bulk buying group," said Bill Spratley, executive director of Green Energy Ohio, and an advocate for OH SUN.
"Solar has made the transition from a future technology to a here-and-now technology."
"This is the Century of Solar," he declared. "The future of small solar is happening now. If the Cavs can win, solar can win."
OH SUN will hold its first two public meetings in Cleveland next week, one on the East Side, one on the West Side, to explain how its organizing techniques can reduce home solar prices by up to 20 percent. (Meeting details are below.)
"We have 70 co-ops nationwide and have worked with over 60 installers," said Luke Sulfridge, OH SUN program director. "We are seeing the residential market transformed. It was not geared to homes when we started.
"We are installer neutral," he added. "We build a critical mass [of interested consumers] and then do an RFP [request for proposals] to choose an installer."
Mike Foley, sustainability director for Cuyahoga County, said he hopes that 200 to 300 residents will join the co-op here. "They need some scale," he explained, before seeking competitive bids from installers.
"People can sign up to join the co-op, but that does not commit them," Foley stressed.
That occurs after OH SUN has used satellite data to get an idea of how much power your roof would be capable of generating and after an installer is chosen through the RFP. The contract would be between the installer and the homeowner.
Because the co-op has in effect done the marketing, the chosen installers can offer discounts between 10 percent and 20 percent because they won't have the cost of finding customers, said Foley. And that discount is in addition to the 30 percent federal tax credit.
OH SUN organized its first co-op in Lorain County earlier this year, primarily in Oberlin, where more than 100 people signed up. The residents reviewed the five installers who answered the RFP and chose Athens, Ohio-based Third Sun Solar, said Sulfridge.
Geoff Greenfield, president and founder of Third Sun, said the Ohio solar market this year "is on fire."
"The biggest driver is simple economics," he said. "The electric rates customers are paying have gone up, and volatility is worse. The sunshine has not changed.
"But the cost of a project has really dropped And we are smarter and smarter about how we install," he said.
Greenfield thinks home solar will soon be as common as whole-house home air conditioning.
"Solar has made the transition from a future technology to a here-and-now technology, not quite boring but not mysterious," he said. "In five years nobody will talk about solar; it will be like AC. When people build a house, it will be installed."
OH SUN is also organizing the Delaware County Co-op and the Worthington Co-op. The organization is open to starting additional co-ops, if asked, according to its website.
Here are details on the two initial meetings of the Cuyahoga Co-op:
Collinwood Recreation Center, 16300 Lake Shore Blvd., on Wednesday, July 13, 6-7:30 p.m.
St. Joseph River's Edge, 3430 Rocky River Drive, on Thursday, July 14, 6-7:30 p.m.
The IURC Nominating Committee held its initial meeting Friday, July 1 at the Indiana State House to begin the process to replace former Commissioner Carolene Mays-Medley. A media release is expected soon announcing that applications are now available and must be returned by the close of business on Wednesday, July 20.
The IURC Nominating Committee members will receive their binders with all of the timely, qualifying applications by close of business on Friday, July 22. Next the Committee will meet on Monday, July 25, at 1:30 p.m. to determine which applicants will be interviewed. The interviews (depending on availability of the appropriate room) will preferably be held Friday, August 5, 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., with the backup date being Thursday, August 4, same times. Background checks will be conducted August 8 to 18, with the Committee meeting again on Friday, August 19, 1:30 P.M., to select the three candidates whose names will be forwarded to the Governor.
The Committee will recommend three candidates. State law provides that not more than 3 Commissioners may be of the same political party as the Governor, therefore, candidates must be either Democrats or Independents.
Members of the Committee are: Allen Paul – Chair; Eric Scroggins; John Blevins; Larry Buell; Win Moses; Michael Evans, and Michael Mullett. Mullett participated in the meeting on Friday via telephone.
NOTE: Allen Paul is a former Republican Indiana State Senator from Richmond, IN. Larry Buell is a former Republican State Representative from Indianapolis. Win Moses is a former Democratic Mayor of the City of Ft. Wayne.
