Real estate developers, local colleges and other large institutions have 100,000 new reasons to think creatively about how to design large-scale renewable energy arrays.
The Boston Green Ribbon Commission will award $100,000 in January to the group that comes up with the best strategy for designing a 10-megawatt or larger system. The Boston-based Barr Foundation, a private group that supports art, education and climate initiatives, is putting up the prize money.
The contest is open to all including private developers, municipalities and educational institutions, and the commission is particularly encouraged by the potential for local colleges and universities to partner on projects, Director Amy Longsworth said.
“There’s a big learning process getting together with other institutions, but working together might be better than separately,” she said. “Maybe they don’t even win, but with the process they’ve gone through they may want to go ahead with the project anyway and it may pencil out, never mind the $100,000.”
A model project broke ground last year in North Carolina, where the largest solar photovoltaic array east of the Mississippi is being built in a collaboration between George Washington University and American University.
Entries are due Dec. 1 with the goal of completing the project by the end of 2016. The deadline is significant, Longsworth said, because that’s when the federal solar investment tax credit drops from 30 percent to 10 percent, making projects more difficult to finance.
“We’re hoping that will just help create a level of interest and public awareness and possibly help an institution get over the hump,” she said.
The winner will be selected through a competitive process based on factors including:
- The size of the proposed renewable energy procurement. A minimum of 10 megawatts of planned new renewable energy sources is required for participation in the competition.
- Demonstrated additional new capacity driven by the applicant’s purchase.
- Timeline for implementation. Qualified procurement projects must include a letter of intent or signed term sheet with a renewable energy provider by Dec. 1 and the prize will be awarded in January.
- The level of collaboration among multiple institutions.
- Degree of contribution to greenhouse gas reduction goals in the city of Boston and the development of renewable energy supply in Massachusetts or the New England ISO region.
Applications can be viewed online at www.greenribboncommission.org/reprize2016 .
The Green Commission is a group of civic and business leaders that is responsible for supporting adoption of Boston’s Climate Action Plan.
