Bowdoin College
IN-24: Innovation A

Bowdoin College is collaborating with four other New England colleges- Smith, Amherst, Williams, and Hampshire- to help increase the size of the largest solar installation in New England. This colleges have jointly committed to add 22 megawatts of capacity to what was initially planned as a 54 megawatt project. The total project of 76MW will consist of 301,300 panels across and over an area of more than 800 acres. Using a "contract for differences" (CFD), the collaborating colleges each purchase the renewable energy certificates for electricity but will not be taking the electrons on campus. The CFD model allows the schools to manage costs by "locking in" the price of electricity for 20 years because if the price of electricity goes above the price of the contract price, then NextEra will pay the remainder back to the colleges. By working together the colleges were able to lower their risk and increase access to larger power markets that none of them could have accessed alone. And the schools can claim the additionality of the project as the additional 22MW would not have been built without a contract from the credit-worthy institutions. The solar project also helps the local farm that the project is largely constructed on, as the land can still be used by livestock after the construction of the panels. Overall, this agreement provides a innovative and scalable model for a major collaborative project that other universities and colleges can follow.