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Community Corner

Westford's First Town Solar Panels Shine in Debut

See how much energy Stony Brook Middle School's solar array produced in its first official weekend of operation.

On last week's Earth Day, atop Stony Brook Middle School was operatonal.

A live monitoring system is online as well. You can see how much the array is generating on a daily basis. 

Over the first three days of official operation, the array produced 384 kWh, even though it was cloudy Saturday and part of Sunday.

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According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the average Massachusetts household used 7,400 kWh per year in 2009. The amount of power produced by the Stony Brook panels over the weekend could run the average Massachusetts home for 19 days.

Massachusetts may not seem like the ideal location for solar. However, the weather -- as unpredictable as it may be -- is still sufficient to produce good solar energy.

Find out what's happening in Westfordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Massachusetts also has one of the highest energy rates in the U.S. This makes solar an attractive option since it makes for a much shorter installation payback period.

More solar may be headed our way. The state has a goal of 250 megawatts of solar power installations by 2017.

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