Smith Will Partner on New Solar Facility

First collaborative purchase of New England-generated solar by any higher-ed consortium.

First collaborative purchase of New England-generated solar by any higher-ed consortium.
The partnership represents the first collaborative purchase of New England-generated solar electricity by higher-education institutions.

Amherst, Bowdoin, Hampshire, Smith and Williams colleges are partnering with a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources, a leading clean energy company, to construct a utility-scale solar power facility that annually will create enough electricity to power about 5,000 New England homes.

Each of the colleges will purchase zero-carbon electricity from the Maine site to reduce carbon emissions from campus electricity use. The facility is expected to open in 2019.

The New England College Renewable Partnership is innovative and impactful in several ways:

• It facilitates the development of additional solar electricity generation in New England.
• It will have a significant sustainability impact, moving each of the five campuses closer to their climate-action goals.
• It helps each school manage costs by “locking in” the price of electricity for the next 20 years.
• And, most importantly, it provides market access that would not have been available to individual institutions, offering a scalable model that other colleges and universities can follow.

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