A company based in Taunton has partnered with a firm from North Andover and together they have earned a share of $20 million in the form of a contract for installing solar power at twelve public water & wastewater treatment facilitites all around Massachusetts. This is the biggest award ever given for the installation of solar facilities in public. This has been funded by money from federal stimulus and calls for installation of 4.1 MW worth of solar energy & this project is supposed to be complete before July 2010. Florence Electric from Taunton & Nexamp from North Andover have won this contract through competitive solicitation by the resources of the D.O.E.

Dan Leary, the President & CEO of Nexamp said, “We are looking forward to the optimization of stimulus funding in Massachusetts for providing long term saving to every site and also creating green collar, skilled jobs.” Eli Florence from Florence Electric was not available for comment. This project also includes municipal & regional facilities in various towns such as Ashland, Chelmsford, Falmouth, Holden, Fairhaven, Easton, Freetown, Hyannis, Pittsfield, Millbury/Blackstone & Townsend.

When finished, this solar project is going to enable all twelve wastewater & water facilities to save around $650,000 every year as they will be cutting use of conventional energy by an approximate of 4.5 million KWh every year. This is around the amount of energy that would be required for powering six hundred houses every year according to Governor Deval Patrick’s office. The Governor said, “In the last three years, we have been able to establish a very vibrant solar industry in the city itself and this has quadrupled the total number of companies & more than doubled the amount of jobs which were available in the sector of solar energy.”

Towards the latter part of 2010, Patrick’s administration projected that Massachusetts is going to see at least a twenty fold increase in the installation of solar energy. “This situation is one that has only winners,” according to the Senator, Marc Pacheco of Taunton. “All twelve facilities are going to be improving their energy efficiency and this is going to be reducing their greenhouse gases & is going to create more green jobs. This is a giant step forward for this state in improving the use of alternative energy & in making people want to work again. I am happy that a company from my district is making the best use of the economic opportunities presented to them.”