Unitil Corporation made history Wednesday when its new 4.9-megawatt solar array in Kingston – the first to be owned and operated by a regulated distribution utility company in the state – was officially commissioned during a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
State and local officials joined representatives from Unitil and ReVision Energy to celebrate the completion of the 11,232-panel solar array, which is among the largest in New Hampshire and is part of the company’s efforts to expand clean energy resources and bring affordable energy to customers.
Thomas P. Meissner, Jr., Unitil’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, described the first-of-its-kind array as a project that proves out the benefits and promise of utility-scale solar and one that’s consistent with Unitil’s sustainability and environmental stewardship goals.
“Sustainability is core to our company. We’ve embedded sustainability in all of our strategies and initiatives, our leadership development, our workforce planning, and it’s reflected in our company values,” he said. “This project, I think, is really representative of who we are as a company and what we stand for.”
The array, which was built off Towle Road, is expected to generate approximately 9.7 million kilowatt hours of energy in its first year of service and average 8.6 million kilowatt hours annually over its projected 40-year lifespan. It’s also estimated to save Unitil customers approximately $2 million over its lifetime of operation.
Meissner said the array will generate enough energy to provide electricity to over 1,200 homes.
“It’s delivering affordability. It’s delivering clean energy and it’s supporting the regional grid. We’re injecting this power into a portion of our system where it’s going to help offset peak demand and meet the needs of the grid for the next 40 years,” he said.
Unitil, a Hampton, N.H.-based electric and natural gas provider in New England, officially broke ground on the project last spring. The array was built on a 36-acre parcel of land in the area of an electrical substation. A fenced area encompassing the solar panels, inverters, transformers and other electrical equipment will cover approximately 27 acres. It will produce electricity that will be delivered directly into Unitil’s electric distribution system, reducing the amount of energy it receives from the transmission system.
The array’s energy production will be optimized through the use of single-axis tracking solar panels that rotate on a single point throughout the course of a day, adjusting position to track the sun from east to west. There are no current plans to install energy storage at the site, but the facility was designed to potentially accommodate storage in the future. While the ribbon-cutting event was held on a cloudy morning with no sunshine, Meissner noted that the array was still producing 1.4-megawatts of electricity – nearly a third of the maximum output.
“For reference, a typical home on a day like today that’s not using air conditioning or other intensive electricity uses, is probably using about a kilowatt. We’re probably putting out enough power to serve at least 1,200 homes even on a day like today. To put that in perspective, that’s more than half the homes in the town of Kingston, so pretty significant output even on a less than optimal day,” he said.
Meissner thanked the partners involved in the project, including ReVision Energy of Brentwood, N.H., which served as engineering, procurement and construction contractor.
James Hasselbeck, ReVision’s Chief Technical Officer who is also a Kingston resident and Unitil customer, spoke about the importance of constructing an array with American-made materials.
“These solar panels are manufactured in Georgia. This racking is manufactured using U.S. steel. The company’s based in Florida and they have suppliers throughout the Midwest. All of the wire, cable and screws, all of the stuff on this site, was designed, constructed, shipped and installed by American-made companies. Now this is American energy dominance right here in the state of New Hampshire,” Hasselbeck said.
Executive Director of Clean Energy NH Sam Evans-Brown highlighted the benefit of the array’s tracking ability to maximize energy production and other features of the system. He also noted that the array recently earned an Energy Champion Award for “Project of the Year” for its innovative characteristics during NH Energy Week.
While this is Unitil’s first solar array in New Hampshire, it’s not a first for the company. The utility’s first array was built in 2017 in Fitchburg, Mass., and features a 1.3-megawatt facility known as “Solarway,” which has more than 3,700 solar panels. Solarway recently surpassed 10.7 million kilowatt-hours of electricity production for its customers, meeting the annual electric needs of more than 185 homes since going live nearly eight years ago.
Photo Captions:
- Teaser Image: Thomas P. Meissner, Jr., Unitil’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, speaks at a ceremony on Wednesday to officially commission Unitil's new solar array in Kingston. (Unitil photo)
- Top Image: Thomas P. Meissner, Jr., Unitil’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, right, cuts the ribbon to officially commission Unitil's new solar array in Kingston on Wednesday. He was assisted by Joanna "Joey" Ray Hasselbeck, 8, and Dan Weeks, Vice President of Business Development at ReVision Energy. (Unitil photo) ribbon
- Middle Image: James Hasselbeck, ReVision Energy's Chief Technical Officer, explains the inner workings of Unitil's new 4.9-megawatt solar array in Kingston following a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday. (Unitil photo)
- Final Image: An aerial view of Unitil's new 4.9-megawatt solar array in Kingston. (ReVision Energy photo)
