Massachusetts Closes on $3.1 Million in Clean Renewable Energy Bonds for Solar Projects
Clean Renewable Energy Bonds — CREBs — to underwrite 1 megawatt of solar power.
December 2007
Clean renewable energy bonds will help fund solar installations at Massachusetts state facilities, including several colleges. Pictured here are photovoltaic arrays installed at Northeastern University in Boston, a private research institution.
Credit: Ascension Technology, Inc.
The finance and development authority for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, MassDevelopment, announced in November that it had closed on $3,129,300 in federally sponsored Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREBs). The bonds were issued on behalf of the state to support photovoltaic installations at 12 facilities across Massachusetts totaling 1 megawatt of power. By participating in the no-interest bond program, the state will save more than $1 million in borrowing costs and $180,000 in annual energy costs, and reduce the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by 500 metric tons per year.
"Thanks to these CREB bonds and other state support, we will be able to increase installed solar power at state facilities fivefold, and total solar capacity statewide by nearly 25%," said Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Ian Bowles. He said the bonds will be paid off by the energy savings made possible by the solar panels. He added that the CREBs issued by MassDevelopment are essential for helping state agencies invest in renewable energy.
Created by the Internal Revenue Service in January 2006 as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the CREBs program encourages the development of new renewable energy projects across the country by facilitating zero-interest loans for the states, cities, and towns that undertake such projects. With a conventional bond, the borrower must pay interest to the bondholder. However, with a clean renewable energy bond, the borrower is not required to make interest payments because the bondholder receives a tax credit from the federal government in lieu of interest income.
In the case of Massachusetts, a multi-agency energy team partnered with MassDevelopment to unify the 12 projects and attract investor interest to reduce issuance costs.
Following is a list of locations where the solar projects will be installed.
- Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, Deer Island, Boston
- Mount Wachusett Community College, Gardner
- North Shore Community College, Lynn
- Salem State College, Salem
- Soldier’s Home of Massachusetts, Chelsea
- Springfield Technical Community College, Springfield
- Worcester State College, Worcester
- Massachusetts Department of Corrections, MCI-Bridgewater
- Massachusetts Department of Corrections, MCI-Concord
- Massachusetts Department of Corrections, MCI-Cedar Junction
- Massachusetts Department of Corrections, MCI-Norfolk
- Massachusetts Department of Corrections, MCI-South Middlesex
For more information, see the MassDevelopment November 13 press release.
See more Massachusetts project descriptions published in Conservation Update.
Read recent Massachusetts news stories about state involvement in renewable energy and energy efficiency projects published on the EERE Web site.