Encore Renewable Energy, a Burlington company that installs solar panels on land and rooftops, has received an $1.8 million investment from Leyline Renewable Energy in North Carolina.
Encore is the company behind solar installations on buildings like the Burlington airport parking garage and the ECHO center on the Burlington waterfront. It is breaking ground later this year on the first solar project at the Shelburne Museum, with seven acres of solar panels, said Blake Sturcke, the company’s chief operating office.
The company said it installed 8,368 KW of solar power last year, and since its founding in 2007 has installed nearly 70 projects with 33,000 KW of solar systems, many in fields or at landfills and gravel pits.
Leyline is a renewable energy finance company that provides development capital for early- to mid-stage renewable energy developers. The two companies said in a prepared statement that the investment would help Encore install more solar arrays.
“They’re providing a critically important source of capital that will support our plans to scale our business,” Encore CEO Chad Farrell said.
Solar Power World magazine listed Encore as the second-largest solar developer in Vermont, based on kilowatts installed last year. Peck Solar, of South Burlington, was No. 1 on the Solar Power World list with nearly 17,000 KW. The magazine listed the North Carolina-based Cypress Creek Renewables, the largest solar development company in the nation, as third in Vermont with 6,937 KW.
Encore is also in the permitting stage for a project at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, said Sturcke – the company’s second project out of state. The industry is seeing a lot of interest from colleges and universities, he said, and expects to announce another large campus project in coming weeks.
Encore has 12 employees, including two consultants who work full-time. Sturcke said Friday that the company expects to double its staff within the next 18 to 24 months.
