Work begins on New Hampshire’s first regulated utility-owned solar array

(Image by StockSnap from Pixabay)

Unitil Corporation has begun site work on a 4.9 MW solar energy project in Kingston, New Hampshire that will be the largest of its kind operating in the state.

The 11,232-panel solar project will be built on 36 acres of vacant land and will be the first array owned and operated by a regulated distribution utility company in New Hampshire. Unitil has selected ReVision Energy, based in Brentwood, N.H., as its engineering, procurement, and construction contractor for the solar array.

The array will be constructed in the vicinity of an electrical substation, and the electricity it produces will be delivered directly into Unitil’s electric distribution system, which the utility says will reduce the amount of energy it receives from the transmission system. The array, which is expected to be completed and brought online in 2025, is estimated to generate approximately 9.7 million kWh of energy in its first year of service and is expected to average 8.6 million kilowatt hours annually over its projected 40-year lifespan. The project will utilize single-axis tracking solar panels that rotate on a single point throughout the day, adjusting positioning to track the sun from east to west.

The Kingston project was approved by the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission in May 2023 and has since received all required local, state, and federal permits to clear the way for work to begin. Under New Hampshire law, utilities can invest in renewable generation of up to 6% of their total distribution peak load, which provides Unitil the opportunity to develop as much as 18 MW of renewable generation, it said.

Plans for the solar energy project in Kingston follow Unitil’s first solar array built in 2017 in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. The 1.3 MW facility, known as “Solarway,” involved the installation of more than 3,700 solar panels on the site of 115 Sawyer Passway.