Town of West Stockbridge / West Stockbridge, MA

The Town of West Stockbridge was looking for a way to control their utility costs and investigated solar as an option. Unfortunately, the direct purchase options were not financially feasible, since the town could not capitalize on many of the tax credit options that make commercial solar energy systems affordable. Luckily, through a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA,) a financial agreement where a 3rd party investor pays the installation cost of a photovoltaic system, the town was able to realize their solar energy project.  The third party investor, EOS Ventures, owns the panels, inverter and all on-site equipment.  They then in turn sell the electricity the system produces to the host at a set rate per kilowatt hour with a set annual escalator.  The 3rd party owner benefits by being able to take full advantage of the federal tax credits and deprecation cost.  The host further benefits by using clean electricity without any capital investment and enjoying increasing rate savings as electricity rates rise.