CUMMINGTON — The four-town team of Cummington, Goshen, Windsor and Worthington has reached the top tier for Solarize Mass discounts by signing up over 58 households to install solar systems on their property.
Discounts for the Solarize Mass program increase as the number of installations go up. The four towns have together contracted for 498 kilowatts of new solar to be installed, said Aaron Simms, general manager at SunBug, the solar company that is installing the systems.
“This is beyond our highest expectations,” Simms said.
Because of the positive response, and the amount of homeowners who have expressed interest in acquiring solar, the program’s original sign-up deadline has been extended by two weeks to May 15.
Cummington solar coach and Select Board member Bill Adams said he is happy with the response to the program, calling it a great success for the towns.
“This extension will give residents another opportunity to sign up and benefit from the program,” Adams said.
Separately, none of the towns would have been eligible for the program on its own, which requires the community to have a minimum of 1,000 owner-occupied homes. So the towns teamed up to meet the requirement.
Solarize Mass is part of an effort initiated by former Gov. Deval Patrick to reach a goal of 250 megawatts of installed solar panels by this year. It is a partnership among the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and the Green Communities Division of the Department of Energy Resources.
Solarize Mass encourages the adoption of small-scale solar by deploying a coordinated education, marketing and outreach effort, combined with a tiered pricing structure that provides increased savings as more people in the community go solar. MassCEC provides free technical support and hosts free educational meetings in the participating communities to educate people about the benefits of installing solar and to encourage interest in implementing the technology.
Since its launch in 2011, 58 cities and towns have participated in Solarize Mass. This has led to the contracting of more than 3,400 new small-scale installations at homes and businesses, amounting to the installation of over 20.6 megawatts of solar power.
“We thank the Mass CEC for agreeing to extend the program until May 15 so that we can keep up with all the interest,” Simms said.
Homeowners or business interested in signing up can go to: sunbugsolar.com/homeowners/going-solar/solarizeWCGW, or call SunBug at 884-1000.
They may also contact their individual solar coaches and contacts as follows: Bill Adams, Cummington, at bill.adams2@verizon.net; Dave Christopolis, Goshen at davec@hilltowncdc.org; Patti Hackett-Hunter, Windsor, at pattihackett@yahoo.com; and Kevin O’Connor, Worthington, at krdoconnor@gmail.com.