Two Energy Powerhouses Broaden Community Solar Access in Massachusetts

ENGIE and Clean Energy Collective collaborate on a 16-project, 22 MW community solar portfolio

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Sep 07, 2017, 07:30 ET

WORCESTER, Mass., Sept. 7, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Global energy player ENGIE, focusing on responsible growth and a transition to a low-carbon economy, and Clean Energy Collective (CEC), the nation's leading community solar solutions provider, have joined forces on a community solar portfolio consisting of 16 solar facilities located throughout Massachusetts. The strategic move combines ENGIE's position as a leading provider of retail energy services and supply with CEC's proven community solar development and program management process to broaden access to solar throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

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"ENGIE offers consumers a variety of renewable energy offerings as part of our commitment to a decentralized and decarbonized energy future, and community solar is a key component of that," said Vikram Kulkarni, vice president of solar for ENGIE Resources. "This collaborative project adds valuable renewable energy to the grid while allowing our customers, including businesses, nonprofits, public entities, residents and even renters to 'go green' and save money with nothing on their roof or property."

The alliance leverages CEC's expertise in developing and operating community solar projects and ENGIE's vast reach providing retail energy services to immediately open the benefits of community solar to a large base of residential, commercial and municipal energy users across Massachusetts. CEC led the development of the projects, while the two collaborators will jointly own and operate the 16 community solar projects currently constructed and interconnected in Eversource and National Grid territories, delivering more than 22.1 megawatts of locally-generated clean energy, which is equivalent to offsetting energy consumption for 5,000 residential homes each year with a clean carbon-free source. Combined with previous projects, CEC continues to be the largest developer of community solar within Massachusetts, bringing long-term project management and customer expertise to the portfolio. A large percentage of the projects is already directly benefitting ENGIE's Massachusetts customers through its residential retail brand, Think Energy, and its commercial, industrial and municipal energy supplier, ENGIE Resources.

"Combining the expertise of these two leading companies on a community solar portfolio of this magnitude is a win-win for Massachusetts energy consumers," said Paul Spencer, Clean Energy Collective's founder and CEO. "ENGIE has an excellent track record meeting growing consumer demand for affordable renewable energy while delivering an incomparable customer experience."

Distributed energy generation via community solar delivers significant economic and operational advantages that directly benefit energy consumers, utilities and local communities, including decades of property tax revenues for towns, lease payments to land owners, millions of dollars of construction investment, short and long-term job creation from construction and maintenance and long-term energy savings for area businesses and residential customers. It also brings the source of power generation closer to customers and consumption, eliminating costly losses from long transmission lines and giving consumers the ability to benefit from renewable resources built in their local communities.

ENGIE's participation further demonstrates its confidence in community solar as a model poised for exponential growth, and CEC's and ENGIE's combined expertise on these initial 16 projects paves the way for bringing new innovations to this rapidly growing and changing industry.

About ENGIE
ENGIE manages a range of energy businesses in the United States and Canada, including electricity generation and cogeneration, natural gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) distribution and sales, retail energy sales, and comprehensive services to help customers run their facilities more efficiently and optimize energy use and expense. Nearly 100 percent of the company's power generation is low carbon emissions or carbon free. Nationally, ENGIE is the fourth-largest non-residential retail electricity supplier, serving customers in 14 markets. Globally, ENGIE is present in 70 countries and employs 153,090 people, including 1,000 researchers in 11 R&D centers. For more information, please visit http://www.engie-na.com, @ENGIENorthAm, and http://www.engie.com.

About Clean Energy Collective
Clean Energy Collective (CEC) is the nation's leading developer of community solar solutions. CEC pioneered the model of delivering clean power-generation through medium-scale solar PV facilities accessible to all utility customers. Since establishing the country's first community-owned solar array near El Jebel, Colorado in 2010, CEC has built or has under development more than 175 RooflessSolar™ projects with 33 utility partners across 17 states, serving thousands of customers, and representing more than 400 MW of community solar capacity. CEC is also the leading provider of community solar software and services to the utility, development and financial industries through its Community Solar Platform™. Visit http://www.cleanenergyco.com for more information.

SOURCE ENGIE North America