Somers Solar Center Now Officially Online

The Somers Solar Center, the largest solar-powered operation in the state of Connecticut, is now officially producing electricity.

The Virginia-based power company Dominion announced Friday the the company began commercial operations of the solar project, which is located off of Route 83 on private land behind the Pleasant View Golf Course.

Company spokesman Ken Holt told Patch the solar power center went online Monday.

The center is made up of 23,150 Kyocera solar panels producing 5 megawatts of energy. Through a fixed power purchasing agreement, the solar energy is then sold to Connecticut Light & Power for use on the power company's grid, Holt said. 

During the dedication of the center last month, local and state officials described the new Somers solar project as an example of how good government could work with industry. The project was made possible due to renewable energy legislation that passed the state legislature in 2011.

Dominion officials said the Somers center is not only the first large scale project in the state of Connecticut, but is believed to be the largest in the Northeast. It is just one of three solar powered centers the company is now operating — the other two being in Indiana and Georgia.

Dominion also announced Friday it was putting online a 14.9 megawatt Fuel Cell power plant in Bridgeport. This is a form of clean energy that uses an electro-chemical process to convert natural gas into electricity, the company said.

Read the full Dominion press release here.

Click here to see more of Patch's photos of the project, and the dedication ceremony, in November.

And here's the official page for the Somers Solar Center.