Community solar project completed at Jiminy Peak

The solar energy installation at Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort in Hancock. PHOTO/COURTESY

Write a Comment

A 12-acre site near the base of Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort in Hancock now sports 7,500 solar panels, the largest such array in the region.

The installation will lead to energy cost savings for the resort and for more than 100 residential National Grid customers in Western and Central Massachusetts, according to Edith Shi, spokeswoman for Boston solar installer Nexamp, which completed the project.

This project in the Berkshires is the largest community solar project in the Northeast, according to Nexamp, which recently entered the state’s community solar market.

The Nexamp Peak Solar Project can generate 2.3 megawatts of solar energy. Combined with Jiminy Peak’s existing 1.5 megawatt wind turbine, 75 kW cogeneration unit and extensive conservation efforts, the new solar array will enable the resort to offset 90 percent of its energy needs from local renewable sources, Nexamp said.

The project’s development rights were acquired earlier this year from EOS Ventures of Hancock. Nexamp, whose Massachusetts offices are in Boston and Haverhill, said last week it would officially launch the solar installation in a ceremony Tuesday morning.

According to Shi, the company will break ground on a community solar project in Sutton in November and one in Westminster this winter.