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Cambridge made two utility-scale solar and wind projects in Illinois and North Dakota possible by using innovative contracts called Virtual Power Purchase Agreements, or VPPAs.
The City’s 15-year VPPA contracts provided the renewable project developers a long-term, guaranteed return on investment, which allowed them to finance and build the new renewable energy projects. In return, the City will receive the projects’ Renewable Energy Certificates, or RECs. RECs allow us to count the new clean electricity toward reducing our local greenhouse gas emissions.
Through the first project — a 74-turbine wind farm called Bowman Wind — Cambridge’s greenhouse gas emissions from municipal electricity use fell to net zero. That means the impact on the climate from generating all the electricity the City uses is fully balanced out by new clean energy. The second project — 800-acre Prairie Solar — is the largest-ever VPPA made directly by a U.S. city to reduce its community’s emissions.
Through Cambridge Community Electricity, the City’s electricity program, Prairie Solar and Bowman Wind’s RECs will generate enough renewable energy to cover the average annual energy consumption of more than 25,000 Cambridge homes, nearly half the City’s households. Cambridge residents and businesses now receive 75% renewable energy — more than ever before.
Click the button below for the full story of how these groundbreaking VPPAs came about.
Cambridge Community Electricity is the default electricity supplier for all residential and commercial electricity accounts in Cambridge.
The program provides 75% of electricity from renewable sources and offers customers the option to receive 100% of their electricity from renewable sources.
Cambridge Community Electricity has saved Cambridge residents and businesses over $97 million since the program began compared to Eversource basic service (future savings cannot be guaranteed).
Cambridge is studying whether a shared local network of underground pipes could provide safe and reliable heating and cooling for buildings without using fossil fuels.
A thermal energy network connects multiple buildings and often uses geothermal energy, which is the Earth's natural temperature, as a source of clean energy. While it’s unlikely that Cambridge will build a large-scale, City-owned thermal energy network in the near future, City staff are working with engineering experts to understand how we might use thermal energy networks as opportunities arise.
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