Partners HealthCare in Boston is partnering with Antrim Wind Energy -- a 28.8MW wind project in Antrim, New Hampshire, owned by Walden Green Energy -- that will reportedly reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by 110 million pounds. The contract represents the largest direct-delivery renewable energy purchase by a buyer of a non-prototype energy technology in the Northeast. It's part of Partners' plan to become net carbon positive by 2025, and to reduce its long-term energy costs.
The contract with Antrim will enable the construction of a wind farm with a total capacity of 28.8 MW and annual electric generation of nearly 95 million kWh. It will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 110 million pounds of CO2 per year -- the equivalent of taking more than 10,000 cars permanently off the road. Partners will purchase 75 percent of the facility's capacity. Construction is expected to be completed in 2019.
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By the target date, Partners' said their goal is for 100 percent of its energy to come from renewable resources, and the organization plans to generate more of this energy than it needs, making the surplus available to the markets and communities in which it operates.
To reach that goal, Partners has adopted a three-part approach that includes a strategic energy master plan to reduce energy consumption by 30 percent; Partners has already achieved a 16 percent reduction since 2010, the system said.
The plan also calls for the deployment of on-site generation, which will further increase resiliency of operations while saving utility costs; and a strategic procurement program -- of which the Antrim agreement is the latest example -- designed to source Partners' energy needs from clean resources.
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Over the past two years, Partners has entered into solar agreements involving full ownership as well as both onsite and offsite power purchase agreements. Together, the wind and solar agreements will represent 22 percent of Partners' total electricity consumption.
Henry Weitzner, founding partner of Walden Green Energy, said in a statement that the agreement will aso conserve more than 900 acres of land and generate 80 full-time-equivalent jobs during the construction period.
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