PHOTON International The Photovoltaic Magazine

Brockton proposes 1 MW system on brownfield site

The city of Brockton, Massachusetts, will hold a hearing in mid-September prior to a city council decision on whether to approve plans to turn 10 acres of a contaminated brownfield into a brightfield with a 1 MW PV system.

	© Dufresne Henry
A greener brown: The 1 MW system in Brockton would be located on a contaminated brownfield.

If approved, the city would seek two grants totaling approximately $1 million, said Lori Colombo, Brockton's brownfield coordinator. After completion of a feasibility study in October, bids would be opened for contractors to build and maintain the utility-scale system. Construction would be completed in two 500 kW phases, with the first phase in 2003 expected to cost about $3.5 million, followed by a second phase in 2004.

In July 2001, PV equipment and module manufacturer Spire Corp., which is putting a solar system on a brownfield site in Chicago (see PI 8/2000, p. 20), was hired to participate in a study on the Brockton system, which at the time had a potential capacity of 10 MW (see PI 8/2001, p. 19). Colombo said Spire proposed a system 2.4 m high, although the city had told area residents it would only be 60 cm high. She expects the bid to compromise on panel size: the system will most likely consist of panels no higher than 1.2 m on a supporting structure with isolated concrete footings to avoid penetration of the capped brownfield site.

Brockton, which chose solar energy to help change the city's industrial image, would purchase the generated electricity and sell it as green certificates to aggregators of green energy, said Colombo. She added that Mayor John T. Yuntis Jr. is also pushing the Brockton Solar Champions Initiative, which would install 85 kW of PV at a high school and a new minor league baseball stadium.