Tighe & Bond secures Silver Award for engineering excellence for 3.5 MW solar PV system in North Adams

North Adams, MA The American Council of Engineering Companies of Massachusetts (ACEC/MA) presented Tighe & Bond and Borrego Solar Systems with a Silver Award for the 3.5-megawatt (MW) North Adams E Street solar photovoltaic (PV) system during its 2016 Engineering Excellence and Awards Gala. Held at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge, this annual competition and event recognizes recent engineering achievements that demonstrate the highest degree of merit, ingenuity, complexity, and client satisfaction.

Shown (from left) are: Back row: Ross Vivori, city of North Adams; Andrew Reed, Borrego Solar Systems; Fran Hoey, Tighe & Bond; and Brendan Neagle, Borrego Solar Systems. Front row) David Pinsky, Tighe & Bond; Briony Angus, Tighe & Bond; Michele Vivori, city of North Adams; and Keith Akers, Syncarpha Capital.

Tighe & Bond, a New England leader in civil and environmental engineering, teamed with Borrego Solar Systems to develop a solar PV system on top of the closed E Street Landfill in the city of North Adams. Completed last year, the new solar system is one of the largest of its kind in western Massachusetts. Its output, when combined with power being purchased from two other nearby PV sites, makes the city 100% solar powered. All of its municipal buildings and facilities (schools, state-owned skating rink, and street lights) are running on clean, renewable energy. Borrego Solar Systems estimates that the array offsets 2,989 tons of carbon annually, the equivalent of removing 630 cars from the road or the amount sequestered by 2,450 acres of U.S. forests in a year.

Tighe & Bond provided site design, permitting, and construction administration for this project that sits on 11.7 acres of the 31-acre capped landfill. Additional project features included the construction of access roads, and the installation of ballast trays with concrete blocks to support the photovoltaic panel racks and solar panels. It also included equipment pads for the inverters and transformers, as well as a variety of other electrical infrastructure and support features.

Borrego Solar Systems was the developer of the solar system, and Syncarpha Capital is the system owner. 

Founded in 1911, Tighe & Bond is one of the most experienced engineering and environmental consulting firms in New England. It has offices in Pocasset, Westfield, Westwood, and Worcester, Massachusetts; Middletown and Shelton, Connecticut; and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Tighe & Bond also recently opened an office in Red Hook, New York.

With a team of more than 270 employees, Tighe & Bond provides engineering and environmental services for clients in government, industry, healthcare, education, real estate, energy, and water/wastewater markets.

Engineering News Record annually ranks Tighe & Bond among the top design and environmental engineering firms nationally.  ZweigWhite also has recognized Tighe & Bond several times as one of the best engineering firms to work for in the nation.