Solar power win, all the way around

Massachusetts' brownfield solar development incentive program is showing results with Distributed Energy Infrastructure completing a solar project on a former EPA Superfund site, which is described as a win/win/win-for the local grid, the landowner, and t

By Tony Kryzanowski

There’s a saying that patience has its own rewards. Syncarpha Capital and Distributed Energy Infrastructure (DEI) can perhaps relate to that, having recently energized a 7.1 megawatt (MW) solar power, plus 4 megawatt (MW) battery storage, site on an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Superfund property in Acton, Massachusetts, marking the successful conclusion of a renewable project that at times required a significant amount of patience.

Both the federal investment tax credits as well as state incentives for developing solar power generation and battery storage on brownfield sites attracted the owner, Syncarpha Capital, to pursue this project. DEI was the EPC on the project.

The Massachusetts SMART 2.0 program has a $.03 per kilowatt-hour adder for solar and storage developments on brownfield sites to a project’s base incentive rate for a 20-year fixed price term on solar power generation sites up to 10 MW.

“By providing these incentives, the SMART program aims to encourage the productive re-use of contaminated or underutilized land, turning environmental liabilities into sources of clean renewable energy,” says Massachusetts, adding that these incentives also discourage the use of undeveloped or agricultural land for solar farms.

Discussions to develop this approximately 40 acre solar power and battery storage project on property owned by chemical producer, W.R. Grace & Co, began pre-COVID, and it was not without its challenges because of its status as a Superfund site. The project was designed around old concrete building foundations, and during construction there was the discovery of asbestos near the surface of the remediated site. It took about six months to design and gain approval for its safe removal while it took only two days to remove it.

Although it was more time consuming to bring this project to fruition, there were no significant extra overall costs compared to a more conventional solar and battery storage project, according to DEI, because there was minimal site remediation required to complete it.

Construction took place between November 2024 and September 2025, and comparatively speaking, that was a fraction of the time it took Syncarpha Capital and DEI to obtain approvals from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, landowner W.R. Grace and Co., and various Town agencies responsible for ensuring that development of the site’s solar and battery storage infrastructure could be accomplished in a safe manner. DEI estimates that approval and permitting took about twice as long as a conventional solar and battery storage project site.

Projects like the Acton, Massachusetts Superfund site solar project demonstrate how renewable energy can be deployed on contaminated land nationwide, an increasingly important strategy as U.S. electricity demand continues to rise.

According to project documents, the bulk of the site consists of the former W.R. Grace Plant, a former chemical manufacturing facility which had occupied approximately 260 acres in Acton and Concord, Massachusetts, about 20 miles northwest of Boston. The property owned by W.R. Grace in Concord is now owned by the Town of Concord, but the remainder of the property is still owned by W.R. Grace. It was used for chemical manufacturing from 1945 to 1991. In 1978, organic contaminants were detected in municipal wells. A Consent Degree created in 1980 outlined the procedural framework for cleanup of the site.

Prior to the recently-completed solar power and battery storage development, the Acton site was essentially generating negligible income for the town of Acton. Now, it is providing a new source of tax income as well as lease income for W.R. Grace, which continues to operate chemical production facilities on hundreds of acres adjacent to the Superfund site. Furthermore, about 40 local jobs were created during construction.

The project was led by Prateek Tare, co-founder of DEI, who directed the project’s engineering strategy, regulatory coordination, and execution.

“Since the site was unsuitable for housing, industrial, or natural habitat development, solar and battery storage formed a unique way to return the site to profitable use,” says Tare.

The Acton project is tied into the Eversource utility power grid and Syncarpha Capital is signing up subscribers for the power that it generates.

Tare says that with his experience building brownfield projects since 2016, his company has earned a reputation for delivery in this niche market, having done so on over 50 sites throughout the U.S., including development on other Superfund sites and landfills.

Tare and DEI are also no strangers to developments on challenging sites, having been the first to complete two novel agrovoltaics developments on Massachusetts cranberry bogs. These projects required 30’ long racking supports for support below ground while also being high enough for workers to safely farm the cranberries below.

So, in addition to developing on brownfield sites, the company has also built a niche for itself in these types of challenging, first-of-their-kind agrovoltaic solar developments. Tare and DEI are replicating that success, currently building additional agrovoltaic projects to be announced later this year.

	Including battery storage as an additional power resource on the Acton project contributes to overall grid stability, particularly during periods of high demand for the Massachusetts grid.

“Building agrovoltaic sites over cranberry bogs was a challenge because we were literally building on a swamp,” says Tare.

He adds that with the Acton solar and battery storage development project, DEI continued to build on its knowledge with its successful delivery. In fact, the Acton project will soon be featured in upcoming EPA Superfund Re-development Program materials on economic re-use.

“This site is a model of how proper planning can return landfill sites to safe, productive use,” says Tare. “If we hadn’t been ready with all the plans in place and all the engineering done in the way that we did it, it would have been a nightmare. We’d still be on the construction site having issues and correcting them. The more planning you can do up front, the more time you can save during construction.”

Once you begin construction, he adds, time is money.

“When you have so many agencies involved, you have to have everything written down and approved. Whatever you can think of, plan for it, and get in front of regulatory agencies at the beginning of the process,” he says. “Once plan sets are approved, having to make changes creates significant delays by restarting a slow approval process.”

Another beneficial take-away from the project was the importance of encouraging developers to engage with their EPC early on, especially on sites like this Superfund site, even if anticipated project completion is four years in future.

This can bring added value to the owner in that there may be opportunities for greater efficiencies—resulting in more power production on
the site through better design, and this can be evaluated before the permitting is complete, because once that occurs, making improvements at that point is nearly impossible without project delays.

“They could almost co-develop it by bringing in that expertise,” says Tare.

Because the Acton project was a Superfund site, a number of specialized design and construction approaches were implemented.

DEI worked with Terrasmart as the supplier and installer of the racking system, minimizing the number of posts drilled into the ground to establish the foundation and infrastructure needed to support the solar modules on the Superfund site.

First, crews were trained in hazardous materials handling followed by specialized health and safety protocols. This proved particularly helpful when asbestos was discovered. Certified specialists were brought in to analyze, document and remove all hazardous material under regulatory oversight.

Secondly, DEI created a detailed engineering plan to minimize surface disturbance.

“Minimizing digging on brownfield sites reduces the risk of encountering potential contaminants,” says Tare.

This required advanced planning on equipment pathways on the site, with a complicating factor being the existence of old concrete building slabs. DEI worked with Syncarpha Capital to develop a novel above ground wiring and cable tray system to avoid any ground disturbance as far as interconnection to the local utility was concerned.

In terms of the racking system, DEI worked with Terrasmart as the supplier and installer, minimizing the number of posts drilled into the ground to establish the foundation and infrastructure needed to support the solar modules. This methodology required constant communication with regulatory authorities, to reassure them that it could be accomplished safely. From the construction perspective, this was the only activity conducted below ground.

Because of how the modules are distributed on the site to avoid old infrastructure, a fixed-tilt racking system made the most financial sense.

Provided by Houston-based, Stem, the battery storage facility is located near the entrance which previous EPA testing identified as the safest location for a battery energy storage system.

Tare says that including battery storage as an additional power resource contributes to overall grid stability, particularly during periods of high demand for the Massachusetts grid. About 80 percent of recent projects completed by the company have included battery storage.

There were a total of 17,288 solar modules installed on this project from four different monofacial solar module suppliers based on supply agreements that the owner had negotiated with several module suppliers throughout the time horizon of permitting, design and final construction of the project. The suppliers were Canadian Solar, ZNshine, Jinko and JA Solar.

The owner was also permitted to deploy Sungrow SG60KU-M inverters, which according to Tare, featured older but approved technology which Syncarpha Capital had acquired again through previous supply agreements.

Massachusetts-based Beals Associates Inc. managed the civil engineering on the site and the electrical components installation was handled by a DEI sister company, Distributed Energy Resource (DER).

With the success of this project, Tare and DEI are using it as a model for two more landfill projects that will be announced later this year and are currently in construction in upstate New York.

Projects like Acton demonstrate how renewable energy can be deployed on contaminated land nationwide, an increasingly important strategy as U.S. electricity demand continues to rise.

“Brownfield development is a win/win/win for the local grid, the landowner, and the community,” Tare says. “Budget-constrained towns receive tax revenue, the landowner receives lease payments from land that was previously a liability, and the local grid can respond to critical shortages with a new source of
affordable, local energy.”

Q2 2026