Ribbon cut on solar array at Heywood Hospital

GARDNER – Despite some setbacks, a project years in the making saw the light on Tuesday when the ribbon was cut on a new solar array at Heywood Hospital.

Hospital officials were joined by representatives of National Grid, RER Energy Group, and General Energy Solutions USA, Inc. to celebrate the completion of the project.

Heywood Healthcare President and CEO Rozanna Penney told assembly that when the project began a decade ago, those involved were informed it would take only five to seven years to complete. Still, she said, while the work encountered delays along the way, Heywood and its partners were committed to seeing the project through to completion.

“The activation of this solar array is a proud moment for Heywood Healthcare,” said Penney. “By partnering with industry leaders like National Grid, RER Energy Group and GES, we are not only investing in the future of our facility, but also in the long-term health and well-being of the community we serve.”

Heywood Chief Operating Officer Shane Doherty said it was the hospital’s administration in 2011 that put forward the idea of a “green initiative” to provide sustainable energy for Heywood.

An agreement to move forward, he said, was signed in 2016, but the project stalled when the original project owner went bankrupt. But the delays, said Doherty, only “sharpened the resolve of everybody who was involved.”

“Nobody gave up along the way,” he said. “This project will ultimately be instrumental in helping Heywood lower its energy costs and be more sustainable, to be clean and renewable with our energy sources.”

Doherty said officials met with project partners in November 2024 to discuss the solar array’s future.

“We had a great meeting, taking years of dust off of this project, and asking ‘how best can we partner to move this forward?’” he said.

He said it was National Grid, in February 2025, that presented Heywood with a blueprint for moving the project forward.

Doherty later explained to the Athol Daily News that General Energy Solutions is the owner of the solar array.

“The purchase power agreement that we have in place allows for us to have the exclusive rights to use the power generated by that array,” he said.

The array, according to Doherty, “is estimated to produce approximately a million kilowatt-hours per year. If we use all million kilowatt-hours, there’s nothing to go back onto the grid. If we don’t use it all, there is an opportunity for GES to put some power back into the grid. Interestingly enough, we use far more than a million kilowatt-hours per year.”

“I remember being in high school when the solar panels were first discussed,” said Gardner Mayor Mike Nicholson, who graduated from Gardner High School in 2013, at Tuesday’s event. “All the works that has been done since has gotten us to where we are today. Heywood Hospital will now be a greener community partner, while continuing to embrace the model of being a community hospital.”