Solar Energy Projects

Upper Blackstone has shown a commitment to support renewable energy and the associated reduction of greenhouse gases.  We currently have three active solar projects to help offset energy costs.  The first is an on-site solar array with the capacity to produce 337 kW from 1,606 solar panels.  The panels were commissioned in 2012 and are offsetting energy costs of approximately $60,000 per year. The on-site project was one of several that the state of Massachusetts funded with ARRA stimulus money.  Real-time monitoring data can be accessed from this page.

The second two solar projects are power purchase agreements where Upper Blackstone serves as the Host for off-site solar photovoltaic (PV) arrays for a portion of the solar power generation at the 5 MW PV array at Treasure Valley in Rutland, MA and all of the power generation from a 1.3 MW installation in Belchertown, MA.  

Other energy efficiency improvements include automation of the biological nutrient removal system, which enables more precise control of the dissolved oxygen levels in the bioreactors and leads to less electricity use by the aeration blowers.  Since installation of the master blower control system and automated valves, electricity consumption has decreased by approximately 10%.  Another improvement was upgrading the regenerative thermal oxidizer (RTO) air pollution control system.  Two new energy efficient RTOs were recently installed to replace the aging RTOs.  This has decreased the RTO gas usage by approximately 40%.