The Berkley East Solar Power Project is a 3.88 MW DC municipal utility-tied solar PV system. This Massachusetts project was built by groSolar on previously undeveloped land and was completed ahead of schedule. Construction began by sensitively excavating the rocky land surrounded by cranberry bogs and a newly created turtle habitat. The energy generated from the system will be purchased by Taunton Municipal Lighting Plant (TMLP), the largest municipal electric utility in the state.

“We’re very pleased to announce the addition of the valuable resource to the TMLP power supply portfolio,” said TMLP General Manager, Michael Horrigan. “Environmentally speaking, it’s absolutely the right thing to do; it will avoid approximately 1,500 tons of global warming carbon dioxide emissions annually. Our customers will benefit from the project by purchasing power at competitive rates and by the savings in transmission, line losses, and generation costs with the reduction in TMLP load at or near peak times.”

Berkley East is co-owned by Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: CSIQ), one of the world's largest solar power companies, and INDU Solar Holdings-a joint venture between subsidiaries of Duke Energy and of Integrys Energy Services. The project was developed by Community Energy Solar, LLC and was designed, built, and installed by groSolar. Over 15,500 Canadian Solar modules span the 24 acres of the project.

The system will generate approximately 5,000,000 kW hours of energy annually, enough to power approximately 600 homes. Berkley East not only provides energy that will be fed into the municipal grid for the community’s use, but also helps support Massachusetts’s environmental goals.