Delivering energy’s second act
Community-scale solar helps landowners, businesses, institutions and utilities unlock economic and environmental opportunities. Over the past fifteen years, Encore has successfully developed over 100 projects representing over 100 megawatts of resilient clean energy.
As technology advances and the cost of solar energy declines, it is now the quickest and most affordable form of electricity production to add to the grid. In order to meet the rising electricity demand from electrification and data centers, solar is the sensible choice. Across the country, communities, businesses and households are transitioning to affordable and locally-generated sources of renewable energy like solar. These community-scale solar projects support well-paying jobs, generate tax revenue and other community benefits, and create a stronger grid for the future.
How Encore develops solar sites
Encore is a community-scale independent power producer, which means we steward projects through their whole lifecycle, from concept through construction and over the lifetime of the operating asset. Each Encore solar project starts with a relationship between our Business Development team and the landowner. Whether a municipality, a business, a farmer or a private landowner, we create projects that work for all stakeholders.
Solar development from concept to operation
Design
- Our experienced engineers and designers ensure solar projects are properly sized, oriented, and located, leveraging best-in-class equipment for optimized production and on-going performance.
Development
- Our project development team manages the detailed work of securing the necessary permits and background information to set a project up for success. They manage projects from site control to the beginning of construction, collaborating with our partners and community stakeholders every step of the way.
Construction
- Encore construction managers work with our trusted partners to ensure projects are constructed in a timely and responsible manner. Construction typically takes around six months.
Asset Management
- Once energized, Encore’s asset management team carefully monitors our projects for performance. Vegetation management partners like solar grazers make sure that vegetation onsite doesn’t impact performance or accessibility. When a project reaches the end of operations Encore manages all aspects of decommissioning, allowing the land to return to other productive uses.
Putting the ‘community’ in community scale solar
Encore specializes in impact-driven, responsibly sited community-scale solar projects. Developing at the “community scale” means our projects cover a few dozen acres. To us, community scale also means putting the community at the heart of every project we develop. That’s why we make a local donation through our Community Impact Program with each project that we energize.
Client Testimonials:
“We were thrilled with the outcome of our work with Encore on the siting of a solar array on our active dairy farm in Essex Junction, Vermont. Encore’s work resulted in an annual lease payment that provides us with the opportunity to improve our farmstead while preserving topsoil integrity. Farming has always involved land, sunlight, and water to produce value; we are pleased to be able to diversify our farming operations to include renewable electricity generation in addition to forage crops and dairy.”
Meg Armstrong
Owner, Whitcomb Family FarmSolar and storage: an opportunity to maximize the value of your land
Peanut butter and jelly, eggs and bacon, whichever analogy you use, one thing is clear: solar and storage make a great pairing. Solar, like all energy generations, creates real-time power, meaning there are times when it generates more power and other times when it generates less. Energy storage can take advantage of solar energy’s peak hours (typically in the morning and afternoon), charging off of systems, to use them for the peak hours of household electric usage (typically in the evening).
Along with the prices of solar, energy storage prices have fallen drastically over the past few years, making grid-scale deployment increasingly viable. Because all energy, including solar, is not on-demand power, pairing a solar array with the appropriate energy storage system can allow for the deployment of reliable energy 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Let’s talk about your project.
Current Encore solar development projects:
Brooks Solar
Brooks Solar is a 4MW solar project constructed on ~20 acres off of Route 7 in Brooks, ME. Brooks Solar is providing savings for the electrical bills of several municipal customers as well as other electric customers under a robust and comprehensive offtake arrangement facilitated by Competitive Energy Services. Maine’s remote net energy billing program…
VPPSA Lawrence Brook Solar
Encore is initiating construction activities on the second project to be advanced under the partnership between Encore Renewable Energy and the Vermont Public Power Supply Authority (“VPPSA”), which was formed to pursue the development, financing and construction of approximately 10 MW of solar capacity on behalf of VPPSA’s municipal utility members. The 2.8MW project is…
The team at Encore Renewable Energy® is proud to be certified as a B Corp, joining over 3,500 other businesses worldwide who also share a commitment to social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency.