Unitil Corporation, (www.unitil.com), a provider of natural gas and electricity to customers in New England, celebrated the construction of Solarway, its 1.3 megawatt solar facility, with local officials yesterday.
The site, located at 115 Sawyer Passway, Fitchburg, Massachusetts, has a long history dating back to the 1850’s of various forms of gas and electric energy production and delivery systems. Most recently, the site was the location of a fossil fuel burning power plant, but the plant was shuttered as part of the Electric Industry Restructuring Act of the late-1990s. Today, the property has returned to its historical use for Fitchburg, only now generating clean energy in support of the Commonwealth’s Green Communities Act.
"We are here today to celebrate a state of the art facility as well as the direction the Commonwealth is going; to rely more and more on renewable energy and solar energy in particular. This was really the perfect use for this site, and we were very excited to be able to move forward with this project as a result of the enabling legislation that came from the state."
Tom Meissner, Unitil President and CEO
Speakers at the event also included Fitchburg Mayor Stephen DiNatale and Steve Remen, Executive Vice President of EDF Renewables, the contractor who assisted with the construction.
The array will be called “Solarway” as a nod to the name of the street and previous generation facility at the location, Sawyer Passway.
