Thank you! We did it!

We completed the Community Solar Challenge!
We earned Winchester a $25,000 budget for solar electric panels (a 2kw photovoltaic array) to be installed on the High School. The solar array will be the town's first renewable energy project, and it will be expandable over time.

And we can do it again!
The Community Solar Challenge deadline has been extended to June 30, so we could win the challenge again, to earn Winchester a double PV installation. All we need is another 150 new contributors of at least $5 per month. In a town of over 7,000 households, this does look quite possible!

How did this happen?
In mid-February, a small team of volunteers got together and began to spread the word. At that time, Winchester had only 3 of the 150 new contributors we needed by April 30, 2008 to meet the Community Solar Challenge. We told all our Winchester friends, met with school and town officials, gave presentations at schools, churches, and public events, distributed fliers through the schools and various public venues, solicited people at Whole Foods and the Transfer Station, and wrote letters to the editor of the Winchester Star.

As a result, before the April 30 deadline, over 160 Winchester households, businesses, and organizations became new contributors to the New England Wind Fund with contributions of at least $100 once or at least $5 per month for over a year. The New England Wind Fund will use those contributions to support wind power development in New England. Furthermore, the MTC will match those contributions twice: once to fund renewable energy projects in Winchester, and once again to support renewable energy projects in low-income communities throughout the state.

And since we exceeded the 150 new contributor minimum before April 30, we won the Community Solar Challenge! Our reward: the MTC will award Winchester with an additional $15,000 bonus toward a $25,000 PV installation with educational software. The remaining $10,000 comes from those matching funds that the MTC awards Winchester for our contributions, so all of this will happen at no cost to the town.

What happens now?
The town has to contract an installer and show that contract to the MTC. The MTC will then write the town a check. Our team of volunteers will continue to work with the town to help ensure that this happens in a timely manner.

Meanwhile, all contributions, whether we reach a new challenge quota or not, will continue to be double-matched by the MTC to fund renewable energy projects in Winchester and other communities. But only new contributors will count toward the next 150 contributor Community Solar Challenge quota.

Ready to make a contribution now?
You send the money to the New England Wind Fund.

• By phone at 800-287-3950
• By mail. Here's a form you can print and mail.
• On-line, through the form at the New England Wind Fund website.

The contributions are tax-deductible. They are used to buy RECs from wind power developments in New England, which is good for green jobs and cleaner power.

Some people do this as a carbon offset program. A $100 contribution offsets about a third of an average household's electricity-related carbon footprint for a year. If you want to size your contribution to offset your electrical use with clean wind power, click here.

All contributions are matched twice by the MTC, once for renewable energy projects in a low income community, and once for projects in Winchester. The no-cost installation of solar panels is made possible by a $15,000 bonus we get only if we reach 150 new contributors by the challenge deadline. (The other $10,000 comes from the matching funds our contributions earn.)

The program is called the Community Solar Challenge. Many towns are participating. You can learn all about it in these pages. Please note the navigation area on the upper left of this page.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Cheers and Thanks,
Josh Dobbelaar
JDobbelaar@Yahoo.com
617-680-2390

P.S. If you are a project team member looking for our project coordination wiki, please click here.