fb-pixelScouts to host state’s biggest solar facility - The Boston Globe Skip to main content

Scouts to host state’s biggest solar facility

The largest solar array in the state will be built on a reservation owned by a regional Boy Scouts organization in the Central Massachusetts town of Rutland, according to plans released yesterday by the Boy Scouts of America’s Mohegan Council.

The array will generate 6 megawatts of electricity, enough to supply about 900 homes and more than from any other solar power installation in Massachusetts. It will be built by Nexamp Inc., of North Andover, and will consist of roughly 20,500 panels on 30 acres at the Treasure Valley Scout Reservation.

The project began less than a year ago, when Boy Scout volunteers conducted an energy audit of the reservation. That led to a deal with Nexamp that will combine construction of the solar array with educational outreach to scouting groups, vocational-technical high schools, and other public schools.

Advertisement



The power will be sold to the utility National Grid, which has a substation less than a mile from the reservation.

Nexamp has built and operates more than 175 solar projects in New England, with nearly 20 megawatts of capacity.

The solar array in Rutland is scheduled to be completed by December 2012.

“This project not only shows proper stewardship for the land, but it also extends our educational mission from our Scout program into the public schools,’’ said Ray Griffin, a volunteer with the Mohegan Council.

Scouts will be able to apply their experience on the project to earning an energy merit badge.

“That’s going to be pretty common merit badge around here,’’ Griffin said.


D.C. Denison can be reached at denison@globe.com.