Solar Citizen Spotlight

Peter White

When Peter White of Barnstable, Massachusetts lost his election bid last year for that state’s 10th. Congressional District, people in the region might have thought he would drop out of sight. But for a lifelong progressive activist like White, the loss was simply a signal to try another route to one of his goals.

White is a firm believer in growing grass roots support for political movements on a town-by-town basis, especially in the area of renewable energy. This year, after much hard work, his evangelizing efforts paid off. The ex-candidate and his small, informal group of activists worked with residents and officials in a number of neighboring Cape Cod towns to get initiatives placed on town meeting warrants for the construction of PV arrays on municipal buildings. And just last month, voters in the town of Yarmouth voted overwhelmingly to spend $50,000 of town money to put a solar PV array on the roof of their town hall.

While there were a few towns where Peter’s group could not raise sufficient interest, the process did at least get the attention of officials in five Cape towns: Brewster, Dennis, Harwich, Orleans and Yarmouth. Key to their interest is the Small Renewables Initiative (SRI) of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, which provides rebates for renewable energy installations. In the case of eligible public buildings, the rebate amounts to $5/Watt, up to a ceiling of 10kW installed. The funds for the initiative come from surcharges levied on Bay Staters’ electric bills.

White worked with Liz Argo of SolarWrights, a renewable system design company based in Rhode Island, to make presentations to the towns. Argo prepared a model design that, besides being suitable for any of the town halls under consideration, would also maximize the refund obtainable from the State. The design uses 60 Kyocera KC175 GT modules, grid-tied through a 13kW Solectria inverter. The system will produce about 12,000kWH per year, saving each town an average of $2,400 per year based on a very conservative electric price of 20 cents per kWH.

The system can also earn additional income from sales of Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) to Mass. Energy. With a current REC value of 6 cents per kWH, this will provide an additional income stream of $720 per year.

“I estimated the upfront cost to each of the towns at $100000,” says Liz Argo. “The State’s rebate program will return $50000 of that cost to each town and, assuming no increase in electric rates, they can get payback within 16 years. With even a modest increase in electricity prices, that can be shortened to 13 years or less.”

At this writing, Yarmouth’s citizens have approved the proposal, while Brewster, Dennis and Harwich are refining the scope of their plans so as to bring a more definite proposal to voters. Ironically, only Argo’s hometown of Orleans turned the proposal down in what she describes as “a reluctance to embrace the aesthetics of a PV installation over their parking lot”. This result has already provoked letters of frustration and annoyance in local papers from Orleans residents.

Overall, reports Peter White, “this was the easiest issue I’ve ever petitioned on; only one or two voters in each town were against the proposal. There was actually more opposition from selectmen and finance committee members, who seemed to be more conservative than the people”.

Steve Gavin, a citizen volunteer on Yarmouth’s energy committee, agrees. “It was a very one-sided vote. And since multiple grants are available under this scheme, we’re now discussing other municipal buildings that could be candidates, like the Fire Department, Police Headquarters, schools, and the town’s golf course buildings”.

Town golf facilities are also on the mind of Jillian Douglas of Brewster’s Alternative Energy Committee. “We’re looking at powering the cart barn on the town’s golf course, as well as the town hall and Water Department operations building, with a mix of solar, geothermal and wind resources”.

Douglas’ only reservation about the scheme is that it is based on rebates, not upfront grants. “That makes it a much more difficult sell to Finance Committees”, she says. But John Abe, senior project manager at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, defends the arrangement. “Rebates actually represent a quicker way of getting money to the user than grants; we just have to be satisfied that the system is up and running, meets our criteria and is under a maintenance contract. Grant processes tend to be more drawn-out, and grant-based projects often don’t see the light of day”.

Statistics for the SRI, which can be used by any Massachusetts Utility customer, seem to support Abe’s position. In a little over two years, some 600 awards have been made on a total of 330 installations, forty of which have been municipal projects.

As for Peter White, he is happy with the movement he has created. “You need the political will at town level to build momentum for this sort of thing, but it doesn’t take many committed voters to get that initiative on a town warrant. And once that’s done, the upward pressure should affect states and—last of all, of course—the Federal Government.”

And Peter, Solar Nation’s Solar Citizen of the Month, has no intention of slowing down. His aim for 2008? Ten more towns on Cape Cod with solar arrays on their town warrants.