Members heard from Pam Messenger with Friends of Post Office Square about the alliance formed in 2016 between Friends of Post Office Square, MIT and Boston Medical Center (BMC)  to buy electricity from a large new solar power installation, adding carbon-free energy to the grid and demonstrating a partnership model for other organizations in climate-change mitigation efforts.  Their 25-year Power Purchase Agreement enabled the construction of Summit Farms, a roughly 650-acre, 60-megawatt solar farm in North Carolina, the largest renewable-energy project ever built in the U.S. through an alliance of diverse buyers.  Summit Farms has been operating for a year. 

The alliance were united by both their long-term commitment to supporting renewable energy and greenhouse gas emission reductions, as well as a desire to minimize their financial risk to fluctuating energy prices over the next 25 years.  Pam hopes that the lessons learned from this Power Purchase Agreement model will be a replicable opportunity for organizations of any size looking to make a significant contribution toward global climate change mitigation efforts.