Title: Utilities seek long-term green deals - Boston Globe

Industry sector: Utilities

Utilities seek long-term green deals

By Erin Ailworth
Globe Staff / February 3, 2010

For the first time, the state’s major power companies will make long-term commitments to buy green energy like wind and solar power.

The four investor-owned utilities in Massachusetts - National Grid, NStar, Western Massachusetts Electric Co., and Unitil Corp. - are soliciting bids from producers of energy from renewable resources. Bidders have until Feb. 19 to submit proposals for 10- to 15-year contracts to sell power to the utilities, which do not make their own power, but rather buy and distribute it.

The utilities must enter into contracts with renewable energy suppliers under state environmental legislation passed in 2008. The power companies and the state Department of Energy Resources will choose a short list of bids by early May, and submit contracts for approval in late July.

Read the full story in the Boston Globe.