Sustainable Westchester Forms a Municipal Solar Buyers Group

Sustainable Westchester, Inc., the new nonprofit consortium of local governments, announced today that it has formed a Municipal Solar Buyers Group (MSBG) to develop small to mid-sized solar photovoltaic (PV) systems on sites owned by its member municipalities.

The organization further announced that it has engaged Structured Finance Solutions, a division of PNC Equipment Finance, LLC, and GP Renewables & Trading, to serve as co-advisors on the project. At the same time, the group issued a request for proposals that can be answered by companies interested in developing selected sites throughout the county.

Seventeen cities, towns, and villages, all members of Sustainable Westchester, have already worked with the advisors to identify over seventy-five (75) publicly owned buildings and parking lots as potential host sites for new solar PV systems.

The electricity generated by these systems will be used to lower the municipalities’ future electric bills. Financing will be handled through power purchase agreements, meaning the local governments will not have to expend any capital in order to benefit from generating their own electricity.

“The goal of the MSBG is to lower carbon emissions and create savings in the cost of electricity for our members through aggregated production of solar energy on roofs, parking lots and other municipally-owned sites in Westchester County,” said Leo Wiegman, Executive Director of Sustainable Westchester.

“Between the large number of sites already identified and the expectation that other members of Sustainable Westchester will join the MSBG, we expect well over 100 publicly- owned sites in Westchester County to have solar photovoltaic systems installed and generating electricity by late 2016.”

Wiegman indicated that the advisors are managing the issuance of a request for proposals (RFP) for the development, design, financing, construction, operation and maintenance of the Solar PV Systems (RFP SW2015-MSBG1). Interested parties must submit their sealed proposals by June 17, 2015.

The RFP documents containing general requirements, specifications, bidding certifications, proposal requirements, protocols for questions and timing for proposals are available on Sustainable Westchester’s website, www.sustainablewestchester.org. Questions may be directed to Jennifer Silva (jennifer.silva@pnc.com ).

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