"I tried to sell the land, but no one wanted to buy it," Mr. Bennett told The Times in an interview at the Watcha Road site last week.

Sunny incentives

As the owner of Bennett Electric in Vineyard Haven, Mr. Bennett has been involved in the installation of solar energy systems in Island homes over the past 20 years. Last year, while looking at the funding incentives available for solar projects, he said it occurred to him that CHC could put its unsold property to good use.

Mr. Bennett put together a proposal and took it to Edgartown National Bank vice president Mary Maida, who helped him arrange the financing to bring the project to fruition. It actually includes three components — the two projects on an acre each off Watcha Road and a third project on a one-acre site he leased at Whippoorwill Farm on Old County Road in Oak Bluffs from owner Andrew Woodruff.

Unlike the Cozy Hearth affordable housing proposal, Mr. Bennett said the abutters did not oppose the  solar panel project. "They were great; they came over and they liked the idea, and they were excited about having it," he said. And since its completion, a few have even told him they like the way it looks. "Some of the neighbors said, 'I look out over the field, and it glimmers like the water.'"

Mr. Bennett said construction on Watcha Road began in early March 2012 and was finished for the most part by July. Some students from the Martha's Vineyard Public Charter School (MVPCS) in environmental science teacher Louis Hall's classes visited the site and helped install some of the panels last spring. All three solar facilities began production on November 20.

Mr. Bennett said the project specifications called for panels that would withstand winds of 120 miles per hour, and also took into consideration factors such as soil conditions and snow loading. They are spaced about 2 meters apart and the poles that support them go about five feet into the ground. The panels are expected to last for 30 years.

How the finances work

Each project cost about $1.1 million. Mr. Bennett said he started the permitting process in November 2011, in order to take advantage of a government incentive that offered a cash grant, which was due to be changed to a tax credit instead for projects started in 2012.

Mr. Bennett said he had to spend the money on the project upfront, but would be reimbursed for 30 percent of the cost of design and construction. There also was a depreciation incentive that allowed him to recover the cost of his equipment through accelerated depreciation schedules. The panels are expected to last for 30 years.

Massachusetts has also established substantial incentives. Developers earn solar renewable energy credits (SREC) for establishing solar-generation capacity. Also, the state's net metering laws allow certain renewable energy generating facilities to allocate the credits to customers for credit on their future energy bills.

The monetary savings for the energy produced come in the form of a credit from the utility company. Power produced by the solar arrays goes directly into the regional electric grid tie inverter  along with energy generated by oil, coal, natural gas, hydro, and nuclear plants.

Later, Mr. Bennett will get a credit from NSTAR roughly equal to the retail price of energy, that he can sell to his customers. They in turn can use the credits to offset their electric bills.

"When you're making power, you get renewable energy credits, which aren't the power itself, so you get paid in renewable energy credits and you sell the power inverter  so you kind of get double-duty," Mr. Bennett explained. "And that's what makes this doable."

The SREC are what make solar project advantageous for developers, he added. "Unless you can get somebody to pay you something for them, they're worthless," he said. "I could have a million of them in my account, and that doesn't mean anything. But I can assign my credits to anybody that has an NSTAR bill that is located in the southeastern Massachusetts district, which goes from Westport out to Provincetown, almost as far as Brockton."

Mr. Bennett's customers currently include the Martha's Vineyard Public Charter School and