BELFAST, Maine (AP) A Maine city has offset almost 90 percent of its electric costs with the help of solar power.
The Bangor Daily News reports Belfast’s newest 660-kilowatt solar installation went online in December and is estimated to generate about $100,000 in electricity per year.
City Planner Sadie Lloyd Mudge says the city’s other two solar power systems generate about $25,000 worth of electricity per year.
The city spent about $320,000 in oil, gas an electricity costs for its nine municipal buildings in 2013, a year before the first solar project opened.
With a 14-year payback schedule and a 40-year life expectancy for the solar projects, Lloyd Mudge estimates the city will get about 26 years of free electricity.
