Under the terms of a 25-year cooperative agreement, Green Mountain Power (GMP) will install a 770 solar panel array at Shelburne Farms. The panels will occupy three quarters of an acre in a field that Shelburne Farms has recently designated as a solar orchard.

According to Mary Powell, GMP president and CEO, "this project is an important part of our overall energy and climate strategy to increase the amount of renewable energy generation in our state. It brings us very close to our goal to have 10,000 solar panels installed in our service territory within 1,000 days - a commitment we made in November 2008."

The project location was carefully chosen by Shelburne Farms and GMP to maintain the historic and scenic integrity of Shelburne Farms, which has been named a National Historic Landmark.
Alec Webb, president of Shelburne Farms, said, "This partnership with GMP fits our mission to cultivate a conservation ethic in the students, educators, and families who come here to learn. Production of clean renewable energy in the solar orchard is an opportunity to demonstrate stewardship of natural and agricultural resources." A kiosk on a nearby walking path will provide visitors with information about the project.

According to Webb, the partnership with GMP is a significant step toward creating the infrastructure that will help Shelburne Farms achieve its goal to produce all its own electricity on site, allowing the farm to participate in net metering for its various facilities. Net metering allows electric utility customers to generate electricity for personal use using renewable resources. They pay the utility regular monthly service charges, but are billed for electricity only when they consume more power than they generate.

Shelburne Farms, as well as all GMP customers, have an added incentive to produce its own solar electricity. GMP is the only Vermont utility that pays its customers for the solar power they produce under its SolarGMP program, which is available to net metered customers with systems under 250 kilowatts. As a result, GMP has seen a threefold increase in the number of customers installing solar generators in the past 18 months. "Customer-owned solar is a cost effective way of helping to meet electric energy needs when power use is high on hot sunny days," said Powell. "The amount of electricity generated from solar is that much less power that has to be purchased from the New England market, which is dirtier and higher in carbon."

The Shelburne Farms solar orchard is expected to be up and producing clean renewable energy in September.