With Charlie Baker to be sworn in as governor of Massachusetts in less than one month, community leaders are urging the Republican to expand solar power in the commonwealth.Environment Massachusetts released a letter Tuesday signed by representatives of more than 135 communities encouraging Baker to set a goal of producing 20 percent of the commonwealth’s electricity through solar by 2025. That mark stands at just 1.4 percent today.
“If we hit 20 percent solar by 2025, we’ll see the benefits all around us,” said Ben Hellerstein, a campaign organizer for Environment Massachusetts. “We’ll cut as much carbon pollution as 1.2 million cars emit each year. We’ll support thousands of good paying jobs that can’t be outsourced.”
The group released a report in November saying Massachusetts would need to grow solar by 30 percent each year, compared to 127 percent annual growth over the past three years, to meet the goal.
