Regarding the article “Vergennes solar array output comes up short” that ran in the Monday, Feb. 9, issue of the Independent, it’s unfortunate that you used an image of the Acorn Energy Solar One community solar project located off Lucius Shaw Lane behind the Middlebury police station to illustrate the story. That’s because this locally owned, 150-kilowatt array has consistently exceeded its original annual electricity production estimate of 172,000 kilowatt hours by an average of 6.7 percent over the past three years.
The Acorn Renewable Energy Co-op developed the engineering and financial models carefully for AESO, and they have proven to be reasonably accurate despite the inevitable ups and downs in electricity production that have occurred over the past three years. We just wanted to make sure that your readers did not get the false impression that our project failed to meet its production estimates.
AESO is a community solar collaboration between the town of Middlebury, the Cooperative Insurance Companies of Vermont, and the Acorn Renewable Energy Co-op, in Middlebury. The project began production in December 2011.
Greg Pahl
Weybridge
Editor’s note: The writer is president of the board of the Acorn Renewable Energy Co-op.