NORTHFIELD — Instead of a walk in the nearby woods, BlueWave Solar employees, state officials, agency representatives and community members trekked between solar panels at the new 28-acre array across from The Brewery at Four Star Farms on Tuesday.
The tour through the 1,400 solar panels marked the official completion of two solar arrays that will generate roughly 10 megawatts of power along Pine Meadow Road.
“This is a culmination of many years of work for many folks,” said Sean Burke, vice president of policy and governmental affairs at BlueWave Solar, “so we’re really excited to be able to be here to cut the proverbial and actual ribbon on this project.”
Ashley Randle, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, speaks at Tuesday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new ground-mounted solar array, which allows agriculture under the high panels, at Four Star Farms in Northfield. Credit: PAUL FRANZ / Staff Photo 
People tour the new ground-mounted solar array, which allows agriculture under the panels, at Four Star Farms in Northfield on Tuesday. Credit: PAUL FRANZ / Staff Photo 
Battery storage for the new ground-mounted solar array at Four Star Farms in Northfield. Credit: PAUL FRANZ / Staff Photo 
Land owners and officials cut the ribbon on the new ground-mounted solar array at Four Star Farms in Northfield. Credit: PAUL FRANZ / Staff Photo
Northfield residents first heard about BlueWave Solar’s proposed arrays on Pine Meadow Road six years ago, when the Planning Board held a preliminary discussion on the plans. The process spanned several years, as the Planning Board voted to approve site permits for the two proposed solar arrays, as well as a smaller 2-acre array on the Connecticut River side of Pine Meadow Road in May 2021. Abutter Christopher Kalinowski filed an appeal against the board’s decision, and although the appeal was later dismissed, it resulted in planning and construction being delayed for two years.
The BlueWave Solar team expects the solar panels to kick into gear within one or two weeks of the tour date, as they wait on Eversource to link the panels to the electric grid. Current and former BlueWave Solar employees and others who worked on the project gathered with community members and collaborators to mark the milestone.
“After nine years, a lot of hands have touched this project, and these projects take persistence, they take patience, creativity and an enormous amount of hard work,” said BlueWave Solar CEO Sean Finnerty. “Beyond all that, what we’re really celebrating today is that agrivoltaics is good for all of us”
While Eugene and Bonnie L’Etoile own the land, Jesse Robertson-DuBois of Finicky Farm will tend to the land as the project’s “Farm Partner.” He plans to grow hay on the site of the array as the farm’s goats graze underneath the 10-foot-tall panels, a similar setup to what is in place at Finicky Farm down the road.
Robertson-Dubois said he first envisioned solar panels at Finicky Farm on a drive back from the eastern part of the state on the Massachusetts Turnpike, when he spotted the grass below a group of solar panels.
“As a farmer, that looks like a microecosystem, not a problem,” he remembered thinking.
Now, he calls solar panels “the core of our farm operation” as they give the goats and sheep some shade from the sun and rain, boosting the animals’ comfort and productivity while also improving the quality of the grass.
“I think solar and agriculture can work better together,” Robertson-Dubois said.
“From the beginning, BlueWave’s view has been clear that Massachusetts should not have to choose between renewable energy and agriculture. Solar and farming can coexist. This is proof of that, and that’s the promise of agrivoltaics,” Finnerty said. “When it’s done right, it preserves farmland, the agriculture supports local farmers, supports the local community and produces clean energy all at the same time, so it’s a win-win across the board.”
According to Patty DiOrio, chief development officer at BlueWave Solar, as a “major taxpayer” in Northfield, the company will provide a total of about $2.39 million to the town over the next 20 years.
As the Finicky Farm team takes care of the land and BlueWave Solar keeps the power running, Eugene L’Etoile said the array allows him and his wife to retire without selling their property, ensuring the farmland remains in the family for future generations.
“It’s saving it,” Eugene L’Etoile said of the land. “We’re very happy with the project.”
Ethan Winter, the national smart solar director for the American Farmland Trust, told attendees that the organization projects that 74,000 acres of farmland — about 15% of the remaining farmland in the state — will be lost or fragmented “under a business-as-usual scenario.” Dual-use solar arrays like the Pine Meadow Road projects help farmland remain in the hands of farmers, according to Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources Commissioner Ashley Randle.
“When we look at the challenges that farmers are facing, particularly now with increasing costs of inputs, tariffs, the list goes on, it’s really important that we look at farm viability in a way of having all the tools in the toolbox,” Randle said, “and agrivoltaics is one of those tools to help with overall farm viability.”
Like Finnerty, Randle called the project a “model for the future.”
“I’m looking forward in the future to enjoying a local beverage that’s locally powered,” she said before the grouped headed across the street for a Happy Hour at The Brewery at Four Star Farms.
