by Jackie Noblett
Evergreen Solar Inc. said Thursday
it has partnered with RMT Inc. to co-market its solar-energy
equipment to utility-scale solar power project developers.
Marlborough, Mass.-based Evergreen
Solar (Nasdaq: ESLR) will provide the solar panels and Madison,
Wis.-based RMT will be the engineering, procurement and construction
contractor on solar projects that could generate between 10 megawatts
and 800 megawatts of electricity. Together, the companies have
submitted bids to install up to 400 megawatts of energy capacity.
If the firms win these contracts, the projects would be built
over the next five years.
“Our relationship with RMT
provides Evergreen Solar with increased access to the utility-scale
solar power project market,” said Terry Bailey, Evergreen
Solar’s senior vice president of sales and marketing, in
a statement. “Relationships with utilities and large project
developers can dramatically improve solar market delivery and
further assist in closing the gap between solar and conventional
energy costs while expanding renewable energy choices available
to utility customers.”
Solar farm projects of the size
proposed by Evergreen Solar and RMT are key to generating significant
electricity from the sun, but none of the projects proposed locally
would be to that scale. National Grid US said in October it plans
to build solar arrays at company-owned sites in the Massachusetts
communities of Revere, Dorchester, Everett and Haverhill, but
the largest array would only generate 1.5 megawatts of power.
The largest solar farm installed
in the state, the Brockton Brightfields project, generates about
450 kilowatts of energy.
