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joshuarr — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 19:48:59 CDT

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.

How To Participate

joshuarr — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 11:29:28 CDT

Become one of the needed 150 new contributors by April 30, 2008. Your household or business must contribute ...

at least $100 once, or
at least $5 per month through April 30, 2009.

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.

Executive Summary

joshuarr — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 11:22:33 CDT

Credentials
This initiative was approved by the Winchester Board of Selectmen on March 24. It is co-sponsored by the School Committee, Sustainable Winchester, Winchester Trails, Friends of Upper Mystic Lake, and Environmental Partnerships.

The Overview

This initiative is part of a larger project of matching funds and participation bonuses designed to help towns engage in renewable energy projects and to support the development of wind power in New England. Contributions to the New England Wind Fund trigger matching funds by the MTC from its Renewable Energy Trust. Towns meeing participation quotas are eligible for bonus funds for specific uses.

How Winchester Can Get Grant Money for Renewable Energy Projects

The Mass Technology Collaborative (MTC) awards grant money to Massachusetts towns for renewable energy projects. These funds come from the large fund it has amassed from over a decade of surcharges on our electricity bills. One or their award programs is a partnership with the Massachusetts Energy Consumer's Alliance (known as Mass Energy for short): for every tax-deductible dollar contributed by a Massachusetts town's residents to the New England Wind Fund, which purchases Renewable Energy Certificates from New England wind projects, the MTC's Clean Energy Choice matching grant program places one dollar into a Clean Energy Choice fund earmarked specifically for that town, and places another dollar into another fund earmarked for poorer communities. This program is already in effect, and Winchester is already accumulating a Clean Energy Choice fund. The contributions are tax-deductible.

What Can Winchester Do with its Clearn Energy Choice Fund?

How those funds are to be spent is to be determined by agreement between the town and the MTC. It may go to PV on public buildings, or to trash bins with PV-powered compactors, or to some other renewable energy project agreeable to both parties. Some towns have used the money to develop an energy plan and to staff a position to work on energy issues.

How Winchester Can Boost its Grant by Meeting Participation Quotas

In addition to the matching funds programs for renewable energy projects, there are two participation bonus programs that can bring additional funds into a town's Clean Energy Choice fund. Both programs specify a minimum participation quota on the number of households that make qualifying contributions to the NE Wind fund between May 1, 2007 and April 30, 2008.

The 3% Program's quota is 3% of the town's households (which in Winchester is 232 households). The bonus is an additional $50 per contributing household. Winchester's 232 minimum households would result in a minimum bonus of $11,600.
The Solar Challenge Program's quota is 150 households. Under the Solar Challenge Program, the town agrees to commit the first $10,000 of its Clean Energy Choice fund to a 2kw photovoltaic system on a public building, and the MTC kicks in a flat bonus of $15,000 to bring the PV project budget up to $25,000. That budget covers the hardware, the engineering, the installation, and an edicational software package that lets students monitor the system's performance via the internet. (Click for more about the Solar Challenge program.) This bonus is the one that has generated the most enthusiasm, and is the focus of our team's effort.

There's no need for a town to preselect which program it's aiming for -- the choice can be made after April 30 signup deadline has passed.

Definition of a Qualifying Contribution under the Bonus Programs
To be counted toward one of the bonus quotas, a household must either ...

make a one-time contribution of at least $100, or
schedule a monthly contribution of at least $5.

How to participate
Click here.

News

joshuarr — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 14:06:14 CDT

Town Meetings:

3/17 School Board votes unanimously to sponsor the Wincheser Solar Challenge, thereby clearing us to send fliers home with students.

In the papers:

3/20 Winchester Star, Letter to the Editor: Town group formed to take the ‘Solar Challenge’, by Susan McPhee
3/13 Winchester Star, Letter to the Editor: Making ‘green quotas’ makes fiscal and moral sense, by Joshua Dobbelaar

How Winchester Will Spend the Money

joshuarr — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 21:39:32 CDT

The money that Winchester will acquire in its Clean Energy Fund from the MTC may be spent on renewable energy causes agreed upon by the town and the MTC. (Here's MTC's page on this issue.)

If the town earns and chooses the Solar Challenge Bonus, the first $10,000 of that fund will go toward a 2kw PV installation on a public building.

Other projects that might be funded:

solar powered Big Belly trash recepticles
efficiency investments for public buildings
efficient public lighting
hire staff to support a climate change action plan
etc.

The town's Energy Committee would be involved in these decisions.

Solar Challenge

joshuarr — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 15:42:26 CDT

The Community Solar Challenge is one of the MTC's two participation bonus programs.

Participation Quota

The Solar Challenge Program's quota is 150 households.

Terms

Under the Solar Challenge Program, the town agrees to commit the first $10,000 of its Clean Energy Choice fund to a 2kw photovoltaic system on a public building, and the MTC kicks in a flat bonus of $15,000 to bring the PV project budget up to $25,000. That budget covers the hardware, the engineering, the installation, and an edicational software package that lets students monitor the system's performance via the internet. (If the town's Clean Energy Choice fund doesn't have $10,000 in it yet, the MTC will front the money and trust that the monthly contributions will eventually come in.)

Administration

If the town chooses this program, it must send the MTC a letter that declares the town's decision to participate in this program and that designates a person to be the MTC's single point of contact for the project.

About the PV System

joshuarr — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 15:37:51 CDT

The Solar Challenge bonus would provide Winchester with a 2kw photovoltaic system on a public building. The project budget of $25,000 would be made up of the first $10,000 from Winchester's Clean Energy Choice fund plus a bonus of $15,000 from the MTC. That budget covers the hardware, the engineering, the installation. It also includes an educational software package that lets students monitor the system's performance via the internet.

Financial Implications

Financial Implications

joshuarr — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 15:36:28 CDT

What are the financial implications of the town accepting a PV installation?

No up front cost. The cost of the software, the system components, the installation, and the related engineering are all to be covered by the $15,000 bonus and the $10,000 from the town's renewable projects fund.
$360 Annual Energy Savings. The 2kW PV system should produce about 2400 kWh of clean energy annually, a value of about $360 per year at today's prices of about $0.15 per kWh.
$72 Annual REC Income. MassEnergy, which is a reseller of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs), would offer a contract to pay the town $0.03 per kWh produced by the PV system. That's about $72 per year.
Maintenance offset by REC Income and Energy Savings. The PV installation requires nearly no maintenance. A notable exception is that the inverter will need replacing in about 10 years, at a cost of 'a few thousand dollars'. By that time, the value of the energy savings (at $360/year) and the REC income (at $72/year) will have totaled about $4320.