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Massachusetts Cranberry Bog Hosts Community Solar Plant

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04 Dec, 2024

This post was originally published on Eco Watch

The site of a cranberry bog in Carver, Massachusetts now serves double-duty as a community solar plant after receiving Permission to Operate approval on November 26.

The Carver Solar project, owned by New York-based solar developer and operator Syncarpha Capital, sits on 28 acres leased by E.J. Pontiff Cranberries Inc. in an overall 765-acre plot otherwise used for cranberry bogs.

According to Syncarpha Capital, the community solar installation has a 7.1 MW-DC capacity, along with a 4 MW, 2-hour battery storage system, with the generated energy to be shared among local residents and institutions. The energy will be distributed to recipients by energy provider Eversource Energy via the state’s solar incentive program known as Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (SMART).

Around 350 low-income residents, as well as Tufts University and Milton Academy, will receive discounted solar energy credits through the project, which is expected to generate around 9,500 MWh of clean energy in its first year of operation.

The Carver Solar project received Permission to Operate approval on Nov. 26. Syncarpha Capital

In addition to generating solar energy, the Carver Solar project features a battery installation that will help store energy collected from the solar panels, making it easier to meet energy demand during peak times. Ultimately, this helps build grid resilience to power outages.

Another benefit of establishing community solar is that it allows multiple households, businesses and institutions to access clean energy from one source, rather than households needing to pay for individual solar installations. Community solar can make clean energy more accessible, particularly to low-income households.

According to Solar Gardens, an energy provider by Syncarpha Capital, its community solar projects do not require enrollment fees. Instead, participants receive credits toward their energy bills for using the community solar.

The U.S. Department of Energy reported that as of June 2024, there are about 7.87 GW of community solar projects operating in at least 44 states and Washington, DC. Customers receive a median net present value savings of around $0.27 per watt (W-AC), with total savings varying by project.

Community solar can also be beneficial by incorporating dual-purpose land strategies, Syncarpha Capital reported, or by transforming otherwise unused brownfields into clean energy projects. For example, the site of an old landfill in New York was recently transformed into a community solar site, and in Michigan, some former coal sites are being transitioned into solar hubs and wildlife areas.

“The Syncarpha team thrives on tackling challenging projects and delivering innovative solar and storage solutions that benefit communities while respecting and preserving local land use,” said Clifford Chapman, co-founder and CEO of Syncarpha Capital. 

The Carver Solar project is not without controversy, though. As Axios reported, farmers can be skeptical of installing solar on farmland, because it can make it more difficult to operate machinery around solar panels and there are concerns over whether solar could become more profitable than growing food, leading to shortages. 

A local group known as Carver Concerned Citizens expressed concerns particularly over how solar installations could affect cranberry bogs, noting that the wooden poles for solar panel installation may be treated with chromated copper arsenate (CCA). The group said these poles could contaminate the cranberries and local drinking water.

Previously, the group campaigned for the removal of chemically treated poles from separate projects under Pine Gate Renewables. Carver Conservation Commission voted in 2021 for the poles to be removed and replaced by alternatives such as pre-cast concrete, Wicked Local reported.

In response to the rise of solar installations on agricultural lands, Carver Concerned Citizens said in a Facebook post in 2022, “Carver is home to a wide range of small family farms that could be threatened by irresponsible solar development. Let’s make sure that our farms keep producing food!”

The post Massachusetts Cranberry Bog Hosts Community Solar Plant appeared first on EcoWatch.

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Vegetable oil waste sees new life through WORLD project

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The Politecnico di Milano, coordinator of the Waste Oils RecycLe and Development (WORLD) project, proposes a circular and sustainable process to turn used vegetable oil into a valuable resource.

Vegetable oil is used widely around the world, and cooking and food preservation is said to generate a huge amount of waste oil. Around four million tonnes of used vegetable oil are produced in Europe each year, representing just 4% of the total global amount of the widespread product. If not properly disposed of, the waste can lead to significant environmental impacts.

The goal of the WORLD project is to optimise waste vegetable oil treatment processes while improving the quality of end products, reducing waste and fostering European independence in the supply of critical raw materials.

The project proposes to recycle used vegetable oil, yielding materials used as bio-lubricants, air purification devices and fine chemical components from petroleum-free precursors. These applications are presented as a supply chain parallel to their well-known use in the production of biodiesel, although this is limited by law to 10% and concerns only the purest fraction of the waste.

In addition to economic and technological benefits, the project has a strong social and environmental impact: raising awareness of correct waste oil collection can reduce public costs related to incorrect disposal and prevent environmental damage. In addition, a life cycle analysis (LCA) will be conducted to assess the best strategies to minimise ecological, economic and social impacts by adopting a ‘zero waste’ approach.

The project study was published by the British Royal Society of Chemistry in the international journal RSC Sustainability.

“We started by observing that the waste vegetable oil recycling industry is currently based on simple decantation and filtration processes, without adequate scientific optimisation. We therefore analysed two alternative techniques — bentonite treatment and water washing — to improve their efficiency and reduce their environmental impact,” explained study co-author Andrea Mele, from the ‘G. Natta’ Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano.

“Through an experimental approach based on the design of experiments (DoE) methodology and multivariate statistical analysis, we optimised key parameters such as temperature, pH, bentonite concentration and oil-to-water ratio. The results showed that washing with water at 75°C and pH 6 guarantees the best performance in terms of yield, productivity and environmental sustainability, minimising the production of waste and the carbon impacts of the process,” continued co-author Alberto Mannu, who recently transferred from the Politecnico di Milano to the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Brescia.

Thanks to the WORLD project, a mathematical model developed from the collected data yields predictions of equivalent CO2 emissions according to operating conditions, providing the recycling industry with a practical tool for optimising processes in line with environmental certification standards.

This scientifically validated approach marks a step forward in the transition towards an efficient and sustainable circular economy. It is said to form part of the key principles of green chemistry, open new prospects for sustainability and efficiency, and may be highly competitive from a technical/economic perspective in models of the circular economy.

The WORLD project was funded by the European Union under the H2020-MSCA program. The consortium, which is coordinated by Politecnico di Milano, includes the Universities in Burgos (Spain) and Dunkirk (France), LUT University (Finland), and the Universities of Sassari and Brescia, together with non-academic partners in Spain and Italy.

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