Derry, New Hampshire held a ribbon cutting on Sept. 1, 2026 for a 2.25-megawatt solar array on about 10 acres of its closed, capped municipal landfill. Encore Renewable Energy financed, designed, built, and operates the array. The town paid nothing upfront and buys all of the output. Encore and town officials project the deal will save Derry about $4 million over 25 years.
What Derry got
Derry buys Encore’s power at 6.5 cents per kilowatt-hour. Encore’s release compares that with Eversource’s electricity supply rate of 14.009 cents per kilowatt-hour, which Eversource resets every six months. Encore says the array generates roughly the annual electricity use of 500 average New Hampshire homes.
The town’s volunteer NetZero Task Force chose Encore from seven developers, according to Solar Builder. Task Force chair Jeff Moulton said the project would supply 100 percent of the town’s electricity needs for 25 years. The sources do not reconcile that with the 500-home comparison, so treat it as the committee’s description, not an audited figure. Town Administrator Mike Fowler estimates year-one savings of $250,000 to $300,000.
Encore founder Chad Farrell said, “Landfills like this one are often untapped resources in the clean energy transition.” A capped landfill is hard to build on for most purposes, and solar lets a town use that land and avoid clearing farmland or forest.
Projected 25-year savings, by who is projecting
| Projection | Amount |
|---|---|
| Encore release (Sep 1, 2026) |
About $4 million |
| Task Force chair, low end (Solar Builder) |
$5 million |
| Task Force chair, high end (Solar Builder) |
$10 million |
Encore calls its $4 million figure an estimate, and the town calls it conservative. The higher range is one official’s view and depends on future utility rates.
Another New Hampshire landfill, a different deal
Hooksett is building a 1.34-megawatt landfill array with ReVision Energy. ReVision projects more than $10 million in lifetime savings, but that assumes the town buys the system in year six. The two projects use different contract terms and assumptions, so their savings figures are not directly comparable.
Why It Matters to You
If you pay taxes in Derry, the array lowers the town’s own electricity costs, but no source says how that money will be used or what it means for a household’s tax or electric bill. Elsewhere, the model is one a town with a capped landfill can copy: the developer pays upfront and the town buys the power. The array is built and running, and the savings are still projections.
What the figures leave out
- Year-one savings are an estimate. The array has no full year of billing data yet.
- The 6.5 versus 14.009 cents comparison covers the electricity supply rate only. The sources do not say whether Derry’s rate rises each year or how delivery charges affect the total.
- Officials have not published how they will use the savings.
- Encore financed and operates the system, so the savings are a price difference on power, not free electricity.
Quick answers
Did Derry pay for the solar array?
No. Encore financed, designed, built, and operates the array at no upfront cost to the town. Derry pays for the electricity it receives at 6.5 cents per kilowatt-hour.
Will residents see lower taxes or electric bills?
Not directly. The savings reduce the town’s own electricity costs. No published source says how that money will be used or what it means for a household.
How reliable is the $4 million estimate?
It is a 25-year projection. It depends on how the array performs, what Eversource charges over time, and the contract’s pricing terms, which the sources do not fully describe.
Sources
- Encore Renewable Energy: Finished 2.25-megawatt project is projected to save the town $4 million in electricity costs over 25 years (Sep 1, 2026)
- Solar Builder: New Hampshire town energizes landfill solar site | Projects Weekly (accessed Oct 13, 2026)
- ReVision Energy: Hooksett landfill solar announcement (Sep 2, 2026)
Photo by Andreas Gücklhorn on Unsplash.