Greenbacker Deploys Agri-Solar

Greenbacker Renewable Energy is purchasing a portfolio with nine pre-operational solar projects from Norwich Solar in Vermont. These projects will reduce electricity bills for local farmers and bring new life to brownfields that have limited use.

Promote the local economy

Greenbacker’s ambition is to help local farmers save on their energy costs. Each project will generate a savings of approximately $500,000. In addition, Norwich also expects the portfolio to generate approximately $7.5 million in local wages during construction.

The objective is to also provide local landowners with additional income through land rental. Greenbacker is actively evaluating the portfolio’s potential for solar power generation and agricultural operations. The projects are subject to long-term net metering agreements with more than 30 farmers.

Conversion of industrial wasteland

The utility will reduce operators’ electric bills based on the amount of clean energy the projects provide. In addition, three sites will also transform former brownfields into less expensive renewable energy sources. The Andover project is located on a portion of a reclaimed gravel pit that is no longer in operation.

Finally, a last project will be installed on a former paper sludge disposal site. Each project will have a clean energy generation capacity of approximately 840kWdp, for a total portfolio capacity of up to 7.6MWdp. For five of these projects, commercial operation will occur by the end of 2022.