Trust Funds Build Solar | Green Energy News

April 13, 2003 – Vol.8 No.3

TRUST FUNDS BUILD SOLAR.

The Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust Fund was established by the state’s legislature in 1998 as a way to restructure the electric utility industry to include more renewable energy. By collecting $6.00 each year from all utility ratepayers the Fund would be able to promote and build renewable energy in the state. The Fund, administered by the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC), would also be used to help build a renewable energy technology industry for the state.

The MTC is charged with finding ways to spend the fund, which is now more than $160 million. (Provided the Massachusetts government hasn’t found a legal way to tap into it to help pay off the state’s budget deficit.)

One way the MTC is now spending Trust money is through its $10 million Solar to Market Initiative - an effort to expand the production and use of solar energy in the state. The objective of the Initiative is to 1) reduce the cost of solar through concentrating efforts in small geographic areas as well as the bulk purchase of solar equipment, 2) support the solar industry in the state and 3) raise public awareness of solar energy.

The fruits of the Initiative are beginning to ripen. The MTC, working with the Mass Energy Consumers Alliance, has helped pay for the installation of the first of more than 40 solar systems totaling 100 kilowatts planned for Boston and a few selected adjoining communities. The first system, on a residence, received a grant of $8500, which along with tax incentives reduced the cost of the $20,000 system by half. Grants offered in the program for solar systems cover a portion of the cost of an installation. Visit Mass Energy at http://www.massenergy.com/ .