WATERBURY, VT, March 29, 2021 – Green Lantern Solar and the Franklin West Supervisory Union are pleased to announce that Bellows Free Academy High School in Fairfax and Georgia Elementary & Middle School are now participants in Vermont’s net metering program. The two schools started receiving credits in December 2020 from Green Lantern’s newest 500 kW array located in Saint Albans.
Since the array went online, Green Lantern has had the opportunity to share details of the array’s development and ongoing production with the students of the BFA Climate Change Club, which is studying the effects of climate change and potential solutions, guided by FWSU science teachers Laura Heil and Thomas Lane. The Climate Change Club’s curriculum is being provided by the Vermont Energy Education Program (https://veep.org/), and recently, Green Lantern Solar General Counsel Dave Carpenter met with the students (via Zoom) to answer questions from the students and faculty.
Charlotte Woch is a junior at BFA Fairfax and a leader of the Climate Change Club. “Our group has been working hard this school year to learn more about global warming as well as what we can do within our school and community to become more sustainable and environmentally aware, and we all really appreciated and were thrilled to be able to learn more about our school’s relationship with Green Lantern Solar!” said Woch. “We are currently looking at ways we can reduce our waste as a school, educate and inform our community about the impacts of climate change, and maximize our school’s energy efficiency as well as incorporate more renewable sources. We look forward to taking more and more steps as a club toward combating climate change and working with Green Lantern Solar.”
“I am so proud that our students have invested their time to learn about and support initiatives that will impact their world,” said BFA Fairfax Principal John Tague. “I commend Charlotte and all of the students involved as well as our science teacher and club advisor Laura Heil for their continued efforts to support the environment.”
The net metering project will provide a minimum of 20 years of savings to FWSU, which joins Green Lantern’s 40+ educational institutions. Green Lantern Solar has developed nearly 100 solar and solar+storage projects that annually produce approximately 75 Gigawatt-hours of clean, renewable solar electricity.
Along with creating clean energy and savings for customers like the Franklin West Supervisory Union, Green Lantern’s net metering projects also generate lease payments for the array hosts and tax payments to the State. Green Lantern’s net metering projects contribute to Vermont’s robust renewable energy sector, which according to state statistics, has generated thousands of quality, high-paying jobs across the state.
Green Lantern’s operations make positive impacts throughout Vermont. Green Lantern has remote offices in Waterbury, Addison County, Brattleboro and Waitsfield, and its design consultants are located in Burlington (TJ Boyle), Colchester (Krebs & Lansing), Huntington (Arrowwood Environmental), and Montpelier (Solar Power Engineering). Green Lantern’s contractors and their employees are located throughout Vermont as well, in Guilford (MT3 Unlimited), Orwell (Homestead Fence), South Burlington (E&S Electric), and Isle LaMotte (Daybreak Solarworks).
Net metering programs like Vermont’s also provide other valuable benefits. Net metering programs provide the economic framework for customers to participate directly in the green economy and the fight against climate change and allow for the increased deployment of distributed generation by leveraging outside private investment. In fact, a recent report by Synapse Economics found that from 2014 to 2019, small-scale solar in New England saved utilities and all ratepayers – not just those participating directly – more than $1.1 billion, $79 million of that in Vermont alone. https://www.revermont.org/local-solar-saved-new-englanders-1-1-billion/
Green Lantern Solar is a vertically integrated regional renewable energy development company with a particular emphasis on turn-key commercial solar solutions for municipal, education, healthcare and government entities. Green Lantern works with landowners to revitalize and re-develop low-value sites such as brownfields, landfills, quarries/pits/extraction sites and other challenging real estate. The company provides a full suite of services: development, financing, construction and operations, maintenance and asset management.