Sunpin to Develop 5MW Solar Power Plant in Blandford, Massachusetts as Part of the Commonwealth’s Efforts to Deploy 1.6 Gigawatts of New Solar Generating Capacity
IRVINE, CA, FEB. 20, 2018 – Sunpin, a leading California-based solar developer, has been selected as an awardee of a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) issued by Massachusetts’ SMART (Solar Massachusetts’ Renewable Target) program. A 20-year feed-in-tariff incentive contract has been awarded by WMECO (Western Massachusetts Electric) to Sunpin’s Blandford project. When it is completed, the Blandford project, sited in Western Massachusetts, will be 5MW ac. This is one of the largest that the SMART program has selected to date – Sunpin’s proposal having met the stringent requirements of the program’s requirements. It is also the largest solar project in WMECO territory.
“We’re very pleased to have been awarded the Feed-In-Tariff incentive by Massachusetts’ SMART program,” said Sunpin President Tom Li. “Sunpin began developing Massachusetts solar projects six years ago. Our plan is to continue to focus our efforts on solar development in Massachusetts, as well as the rest of the U.S., over the next few years. Ultimately, by 2021, we aim to develop a portfolio of a gigawatt’s worth of solar projects in the U.S.; a significant portion of them will be located in Massachusetts.”
In total, Sunpin has over 100MW of solar installations under development in Massachusetts. Sunpin will submit these projects in the next round of Massachusetts’ SMART incentives when they become available. Additionally, Sunpin is currently building a 96MW solar project in Southern California, which is expected to be in commercial operation by May 2018.
About Sunpin
Sunpin Holdings, LLC is an investment and development company that focuses on the development and financing of photovoltaic projects throughout the United States. Based in Irvine, California, Sunpin is primarily focused on project development and project engineering, procurement & construction management. Sunpin offers superior quality in the project: development, finance, engineering, procurement, construction and operations of commercial and utility photovoltaic solar plants. Sunpin has developed projects in different states including CA, MA, MD, IL and some other states. Sunpin currently has more than 600 MW under its development pipeline.
About MA SMART
SMART, a long-term sustainable solar incentive program sponsored by Eversource, National Grid and Unitil, will encourage the development of solar photovoltaic (PV) technology throughout the State of Massachusetts by supporting 1,600 MW of new solar generating capacity. The new capacity awards have begun with 17 projects totaling 53.273 MW of solar PV. These new Solar Tariff Generation Units (STGUs) will generate clean, renewable power for decades to come. Along with this first block of awards, the Base Compensation Rate levels have been set for the SMART program. In the early summer of 2018, the SMART Program will become available to solar PV projects of all types and sizes.