Developer plans $45 million solar energy farm in Rhode Island (8 MW PV)

[jpak]

http://news.bostonherald.com/news/national/northeast/view.bg?articleid=1083283&srvc=home&position=recent

COVENTRY, R.I. - A former hazardous waste site in Coventry could be converted into the largest solar energy farm east of the Mississippi River.

New York-based Allco Renewable Energy signed a letter of intent Tuesday to build the $45 million project on a 100-acre tract of town-owned land that was once home to a pig farm.

A portion of the farm was declared a federal Superfund site in the 1980s.

Coventry has agreed to give Allco a 50-year lease and the company has agreed to make payments of $200,000 a year or 4 percent of gross receipts to the town, whichever is greater.

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Progress Of 8 MW Rhode Island Solar Farm Faces Contingencies

http://www.solarindustrymag.com/e107_plugins/content/content_lt.php?content.1147

According to a report from The Providence Journal, Allco Renewable Energy - which is planning an 8 MW solar farm in Coventry, R.I. - will pursue its large-scale project only if the state passes favorable renewable-energy legislation.

Timothy C. Barmann, a Journal staff writer, reported that Allco executives particularly support passage of the Rhode Island Renewable Energy Sources Act, which was recently introduced by Rep. Raymond J. Sullivan, D-Coventry.

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[NNadir]

1. Um...um...um... "only if?"

You mean that solar energy still needs a huge subsidy?

I've heard somewhere that mass production was going to make solar energy cheap and affordable...

Where could I have heard that?

Um...

Let me think...

Oh wait, I remember now. The solar industry can only make the equivalent of one natural gas plant per year because of polysilicon shortages.

Still, one can make an awful lot of electronic waste with 45 million dollars. Enough to soak half a million chinese livers in PFOS, I'd bet.