Members and staff of the Boys & Girls Club of Manchester gather at the new Stebbins Family Hall at Camp Foster in Bedford.
Green Energy Times Staff
The Boys & Girls Club of Manchester has three new solar arrays at two New Hampshire sites. ReVision Energy, which has offices in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, installed a total of 408 solar panels on three rooftops. An 81.3 kilowatt (kW) system was installed at the Union Street Clubhouse in Manchester, and two systems, with a combined capacity of 49.3 kW, were installed on the Pool House and Stebbins Family Hall buildings at Camp Foster in Bedford.
Solar array on the Union Street Clubhouse. Photo credit: ReVision Energy.
Together, the three solar systems are expected to produce about 150,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity each year. According to ReVision Energy, this will reduce the carbon footprint of the Boys & Girls Club by about 152,000 pounds of carbon dioxide annually which is the equivalent of planting 81 acres of forest.
The array was financed by a five-year power purchase agreement with local impact partners. Under the agreement, the Boys & Girls Club of Manchester has no upfront costs, and its electricity rate is guaranteed for the term of the contract, as it reduces its carbon impacts. The agreement has a buyout clause that can be exercised at the end of the five years. Overall, the three solar systems are expected to save the club about $845,000 over the lifetimes of the systems, if the buyout is exercised.
The Boys & Girls Club of Manchester is one of the 53 founding organizations of Boys & Girls Clubs of America. It began working in 1907 and is currently trying to raise $5.85 million for a series of renovations at the sites of the solar arrays. Though it has an annual membership of 2,600 boys and girls, the fundraising drive is to be able to serve more children. The solar arrays, however, have been covered by the power purchase agreement and that part of the renovation has been covered. The web site of the Boys & Girls Club of Manchester is www.mbgcnh.org.
The web site of ReVision Energy is www.revisionenergy.com.
Leave a Reply