Opinion: Local and Green (#22). Towns Moving From Planning To Acting On Climate

Editor’s note: This column appeared previously in the Amherst Bulletin

Across the state, cities and towns are moving from planning to pursue climate action to actually taking action! Municipalities — working with citizen activists, volunteers, nonprofit organizations, and businesses — are taking bold steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase the use of renewable energy.

Many municipalities, like Amherst, have used the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness program to help fund the creation of a Climate Action Plan. And, more and more municipalities have now moved on into taking innovative actions to accelerate emissions reduction. The following are some examples of programs already up and running (though some are imminent) that provide energy efficiency, renewable electricity, clean heating, microgrids and energy storage.

Zero Energy Ready Buildings
To provide a zero energy ready building requires both energy efficiency features and the ability to use renewable sourced heat and electricity.

Amherst looks forward to our first new municipal building that is both energy efficient and powered and heated entirely with renewable energy as required by our groundbreaking Zero Energy Building Bylaw. In Lexington, two new zero energy school buildings are already powered entirely with solar panels and heated with air source heat pumps and a geothermal system. Cambridge has also built a net zero energy elementary school.

Wastewater treatment uses a massive amount of energy. Pittsfield installed a wastewater treatment plant with a combined heat and power system to significantly reduce energy consumption and make the entire facility net zero energy. This system utilizes three 65 kilowatt micro turbines that are powered by the methane gas produced by the natural anaerobic digestion process of the waste sludge. The heat produced by the CHP (combined heat and power) system is channeled back into the sludge, which accelerates the anaerobic digestion process to improve the efficiency of the entire system. 

In Watertown, an ordinance requires new commercial buildings greater than 10,000 square feet or residential buildings with more than 10 units to be built with rooftop solar panels.

In the world of private building development, Wright Builders has built sustainable, net zero energy one- and two-bedroom condos in Green River Common, a development offering moderately priced housing in Greenfield. Hartswell Farm has built seven net zero energy solar ready market rate homes in South Amherst. Our local architectural firms are now offering both designs for net zero homes and deep energy retrofits of existing homes.

Several communities are seeking more energy efficiency in, and/or solar power on commercially developed buildings. In Watertown, an ordinance requires new commercial buildings greater than 10,000 square feet or residential buildings with more than 10 units to be built with rooftop solar panels.

Both Cambridge and Boston have a Building Energy Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance, which requires large and medium buildings to track their annual energy and water usage and report it to the city every year. The ordinance provides valuable public data on building energy performance for landlords and tenants, which has been used to identify inefficient buildings and coordinate targeted outreach to help building owners save money and reduce energy consumption. 

Lowell launched the Better Buildings Efficacy Upgrade program to help provide energy efficiency upgrades to its buildings’ boilers, insulation, lighting and other building systems. 

Electricity Powered by Renewable Energy
Northampton, Amherst, and Pelham will soon apply to the state to start a joint Community Choice Aggregation program that would provide residents and businesses with a continually higher percentage of renewable electricity while investing in local projects to reduce emissions.

Municipalities around the state are adding solar to parking lots, municipal buildings and especially on capped landfills. Newton has placed solar panels on 29 municipal parking lots and buildings, providing an amount that would match nearly half of Newton’s municipal electrical demand by solar power generated from these facilities. 

In Worcester, an 8.1-megawatt municipal solar installation on a capped landfill generates enough electricity to power 1,340 homes annually.

Gloucester’s two wind turbines at the Blackburn Business Park provide the power for all municipal properties, and together they save the city approximately $750,000 per year in electricity costs. 

Observing that many residents still face obstacles to switch to solar, Newton has developed a community-shared solar program that enables residents to benefit from a solar installation in a central location.

Battery Storage and Microgrids
In Sterling and Ashburnham, municipal utilities have installed battery storage systems to reduce energy costs, provide backup power to critical facilities, and facilitate the installation of more solar electricity generation.

The Dennis, Yarmouth Regional High School also serves as the designated community emergency shelter. In the event of a blackout or damage to the electric grid, a combination of rooftop solar panels and battery storage would power the building’s essential functions. 

In Gosnold, one of the first community-scale solar powered microgrids in the United States is providing more than 50 percent of the electricity used on the island of Cuttyhunk during the peak summer season. At times when the solar panels are generating more electricity than is being consumed, excess power is fed into a 1.25-megawatt-hour lithium-ion battery. 

It is gratifying that initiatives and technologies that once seemed far-fetched — like microgrids, net zero energy buildings, and electric transit buses — are now becoming commonplace. 

The Amherst Town Council will be receiving the Climate Action, Adaptation and Resilience Plan from the Energy and Climate Action Committee in early May. The urgency of meeting our climate goals, the first of which is to reduce our emissions 25 percent by 2025, is upon us. The time for planning is over and the time for action is now.

Darcy DuMont is a founding member of Western MA Community Choice Energy, a member of the Amherst Energy and Climate Action Committee, and an Amherst Town Councilor representing District 5. Views expressed are hers and not those of the Town Council.