Somerset Solar Farm Powering UMMS

BALTIMORE (AP) -- A solar farm on the lower Eastern Shore will help power the University of Maryland Medical System.

University officials held a ribbon-cutting celebration Monday in Baltimore for the 25-acre solar power farm in Somerset County.

Constellation financed, owns and operates the solar power system. The University of Maryland Medical Center will purchase the electricity produced by the solar panels under a 20-year agreement with BITHENERGY, which developed the project.

University officials say producing the same amount of power with a conventional fossil-fuel power plant would release 3,300 metric tons of carbon dioxide a year. That's about the same amount of emissions produced each year by nearly 700 cars.

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