The UMass Solar siting forum is dedicated to locating green energy targets

AMHERST — To meet its green energy goals, Massachusetts will need to double its solar generation capacity and add 2,500 megawatts of additional energy storage.

But where will the state put it?

According to SEIA, the Solar Energy Industries Association, Massachusetts already has more than 5,000 megawatts of solar energy, ranking it 10th out of 50 states. In 2023 alone, 237 megawatts of this capacity were built.

“I think observing the Sun is one of the most pressing issues facing our region,” state Sen. Jo Comerford of Northampton said before Tuesday’s Second Western Solar Mass Forum at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

That puts it at the top for economic development, passenger rail expansion and other headline-grabbing issues, Comerford said. He represents a sprawling Senate district in Hampshire, Franklin and Worcester counties, where rural towns – places with open space for development – seem to be targets for solar industries looking to expand.

“We believe in a green future,” she said. “But we need evidence that Western Massachusetts will not bear a disproportionate burden,” he added.

Comerford, state Rep. Mindy Domb, D-Amherst, and Clean Energy Extension at UMass Amherst will sponsor the second Western Mass Solar Forum at the university on Tuesday, June 4. The first event last year attracted 400 people — solar developers and city officials and others.

Comerford pointed to high-profile small-town projects such as the 105-megawatt New Leaf Energy battery storage facility proposed for Wendell in Franklin County, population 926.

Neighborhood opposition to NextGrid Energy’s plan to build a solar farm on suspected wetlands in Springfield’s Sixteen Acres neighborhood has intensified near densely populated areas.

And a $70 million plan to install batteries to store renewable energy – needed to meet peak demand without fossil fuels – at the former West Springfield power plant is moving closer to an interconnection agreement with grid operator ISO New England that will allow the plant to charge and discharge from the transmission system, developer Chris Sherman of Cogentrix Energy Power Management wrote in an email this week. He expects this process to be completed within the next four to six months.

In April, the state’s Energy Infrastructure Siting and Permitting Commission released a list of recommendations that included consolidating multiple permits, establishing mandatory permitting decision-making time frames, establishing community engagement requirements for developers, and creating guidelines that cities can use on the suitability of land for development of energy infrastructure.

Comerford said she wants to place an emphasis on locating solar installations on structures under construction, rather than on farmland or vacant properties.

She and state MP Natalie Blais, D-Sunderland, have a bill in the Legislature that would encourage more solar canopies to be placed over parking lots to achieve solar goals without taking up land.

Large solar canopies are already installed at UMass Amherst, the Smith & Wesson plant in Springfield and the River Valley Co-Op supermarket in Easthampton.