by Valerie Hurley ·
Friday, August 21, 2026
Harvard will share a $1 million grant with Ayer and Shirley to lay the groundwork for a shared power grid that would generate, distribute, and manage electricity—on or off the main grid and most likely for municipal buildings—for an estimated six participating towns. The grant came through the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs’ new Environment and Climate One Stop program on Aug. 13.
The money will pay for feasibility studies, community engagement and education activities, and other services needed to plan for a solar energy consortium for Harvard, Shirley, Ayer, and at least three additional towns. Each town would create a microgrid with a 10-megawatt power generation and storage capacity, sited at various locations in that town. The system as a whole would be able to supply electricity on a routine basis, but is designed to be particularly useful during times of peak demand or during power outages in the main grid. The power will most likely serve municipal buildings, but each town can decide how to use it.
The project will be managed by the public-private team of Keep Lights On MA and the Texas-based, privately held energy infrastructure company NextGen Energy, which has helped create microgrids in Louisiana, Utah, and Texas.
The feasibility studies for each town, said NextGen CCO Gina Ashe, will look at potential sites, assess environmental factors, and calculate optimal sizing and combination of components. “The study gives the towns the information required to make an informed go/no-go decision next spring at town meetings,” Ashe said.
Harvard has signed a memorandum of understanding with NextGen, but has yet to sign any binding contracts. Select Board Chair SusanMary Redinger said a contract specifying terms for the feasibility phase of the project “is in the works,” and she expects to see it soon. As of now, she said, “We are under no obligations.”
According to Ashe, the financial model NextGen uses makes the community-scaled infrastructure it specializes in accessible to towns that could not afford it independently, creating a “risk profile” attractive to the institutional investors that would finance this project. For the first five years, investors take 98% of the profits, which are generated when the towns sell excess energy back to the main grid; towns share the remaining 2% revenue. But during that time, she said, the municipalities will benefit from up to 50% lower energy costs. In year six, positions switch: The towns split 98% of revenue generated by their consortium.
“In public Select Board meetings, NextGen Energy has shared that … if a town proceeds with a 10MW [megawatt] microgrid, they are poised to generate upwards of $1 million per year in municipal revenue over the lifecycle of the project,” Ashe wrote in an email to the Press.
Feasibility studies are expected to begin this fall, followed by community outreach. “Moving forward on project development is subject to town approval,” Ashe said, adding that NextGen hopes to see proposals at the 2027 spring town meetings of the participating towns.
The proposed clean energy consortium is not related to Solect Energy’s proposed 1.4-megawatt solar array, the site for which will be selected by the end of September. (See page 1.)