[Credit: Vineyard Power Cooperative]

Martha’s Vineyard, one of Massachusetts’ best known tourist destinations, will soon have a solar canopy complete with EV charging stations.

Vineyard Power Cooperative (VPC) is in the first phase of a project to put two rows of solar electricity parking lot canopies in the parking lot in between two stores, Cronig's and Healthy Additions in Vineyard Haven, reports the Martha’s Vineyard Patch.Com site.

This 128KW canopy array will provide approximately 160,000 kilowatt hours of electricity to Cronig's – an area supermarket -- every year and will also include EV charging stations for what VPC hopes will help power an increasing fleet of electric vehicles in the years ahead. 

Erik Peckar of VPC told Patch.Com that they are hoping to begin construction by the early spring, pending approval by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission (MVC) and the Town of Tisbury. “So far, all of the response we’ve received has been really positive,” said Peckar.

VPC plans to work with what is called disturbed land - land that’s already used for other things, such as parking lots. “We don’t want to put solar on usable farm land,” Peckar told Patch.Com.

The solar canopies will produce enough electricity to cover approximately one-quarter of Cronig’s electricity use every year.

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