Vermont’s Green Mountain Power had three new solar projects come online within the last two months as it makes strides toward getting more of its power from renewable sources.

The state’s third-largest utility company opened a 53-kilowatt project at Shelburne Farms, a 138-kilowatt roof-mounted system on the utility’s Montpelier Service Center and a 200-kilowatt project next to its Berlin power plant.

The company also installed a system on one of its facilities last year and a 4-megawatt system dedicated to producing the energy needed to charge the company’s three plug-in hybrid vehicles, said Green Mountain Power public relations director Dorothy Schnure.

“We all live in Vermont,” Schnure said. “And people in Vermont have a strong environmental ethic.”

Schnure said these projects were born out of a combination of factors. The company has two major contracts with power generators in the state that are set to expire in 2012 and 2015, she said.

“We were looking at replacing about 80 percent of our power,” Schnure said. “That’s a huge challenge.”

In 2008, when Mary Powell came on as the utility’s CEO, she said she wanted to pursue more renewable energy sources. She said she wanted to find low-cost, low-carbon output power.

The company has since diversified its power portfolio. In addition to its various solar arrays, which together generate about half a megawatt of power, Schnure said, the company has several biofuel plants.

“It’s not a lot,” Schnure said. “It’s not going to totally replace Yanky Power, [one of the utility’s major providers], or anything, but we believe it’s important to have that diversity.”

In addition to installing its own solar and renewable systems, Green Mountain has promoted residential and commercial solar power installations by offering payouts above and beyond its net metering system, Schnure said.

The company has paid customers 6 cents per kilowatt generated whether it goes onto the grid or not, Schnure said. Greem Mounain does it because solar has proved to be a viable resource in Vermont, where energy use typically peaks at the same time solar power generation does.
When people install photovoltaic solar on their homes, they alleviate demand on the grid during peak times of day, which pays off for all of Green Mountain’s customers, Schnure said.

That program has caused the number of solar installations in Green Mountain’s jurisdiction to quadruple over the last two years, Schnure said.

“We’ve done a lot to really jumpstart solar in Vermont,” Schnure said. “And we want to lead by example.”

That’s one reason the company is installing its own projects, she said.

Pictured: A rather distant view of Green Mountain Power's Shelburne Farms installation, dubbed the "solar orchard." Image courtesy of GMP.