June 9, 2008
Energy Committee minutes taken by: Chinloo Lama
Energy Committee Present: Chinloo Lama
Martha Broad
Paula Berg
Laura Kischitz
Beth McGilvray
Herb Cabral
The Energy Committee met at 7:45 p.m. at the Town Hall.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m.
Discussion:
Agenda
7:45 – 8:00 Discussion w/ Town Planner, Jennifer Atwood Burney on potential updates to by-laws & Town Building Guidelines for Energy Conservation
8:00 – 8:30 PPA Status and presentation, Cara from Borrego Solar, 15 min presentation & 15 min discussion
8: 30 – 8:45 Review Action Items
· Workshop / Lecture Series Update
· Guidelines Draft for Town Buildings
· Bolton Fair Recycling & Energy Network Tent
· Review and Sign Minutes (2 Sets)
8:45 Discuss and vote on having Bolton join Massachusetts Climate Action Network (MCAN)
Town Planner (Jennifer Atwood Burney)
We as a committee would like to help with the bylaw updates. Jennifer wanted to know from us what our goals are. She has already started research on wind regulations from other towns. The sooner we can get this to her, the better (hopefully by December).
Some possible residential bylaws are:
Ground-mount PV system.
Clear Geothermal coverage and knowledge
Wind Turbines
Jennifer suggested that we should work with the board of health about education and proper knowledge of technologies.
We should think about putting together a guide book or guidelines from the town board for the residential area.
We should have a link on each of our sites (town planner and BEC). Improve our site to give more comprehensive links to info online.
Suggestion from attendee (Margaret Campbell): Energy guidelines should be added to the town building bylaws such as auto sensor switches. Some of the guidelines should be reviewed by BEC and town planner to make sure that they are suitable.
PPA offered by Borrego
Borrego Reps met with Bill Spratt from Nashoba regional schools. A review of the school grounds and structures has been done and the cost analysis was presented by Cara (Lastname?) from Borrego at our meeting. The suggestion is to add panels to the schools this year, and add more onto the library and DPS the following years. This will ensure the minimum required KWH for the PPA. This plan will roll the installation cost together with the power purchase contract. Our high school currently spends 11.9 cents per KWH for electricity. Rates have increased 7.5% over seven years. According to Borrego, we are currently at the end of our supply chain (we get it from the north and we are at the end of the daisy chain). The impending warm weather taxes our dependency and we will get more brown outs and black outs.
Borrego’s suggestion for solar:
- A long term 20-year contract, budget-able energy prices. There will be flexibility for us to purchase the system before the 20 year end.
- There will be educational and community program incorporated. They will provide teacher training and kiosks on site to show the metering and energy production.
- No upfront costs – we are purchasing only the cost of energy we use from the provider who is paying for the installation.
- No major purchasing requirements.
- Phased in capability – cap of 1.3M with the rebates. We can reapply next year when new systems are going to be installed either here in Bolton or in Lancaster and Stow.
Suggested location of solar panels would be on the High School and Florence Sawyer for 300-400 kwh combined. Mainly on roof-tops but possibly carport roofs. There are 100k sqft of roof space on just the high school.
Cara reviewed the technology of the solar panels. Solar panels will be on rooftop and inverters will tie back to grid, but most likely will not feed back to grid. It is not necessary for commercial systems for this to be the case. It is not as beneficial. Also the rebates really cap the amount of PV to generate enough to net meter.
408,303 kwh - This system will only cover 26% of the high school’s electricity usage. 9% of the total school district needs.
More estimates and cost analysis were presented. Please contact our committee for the detailed estimates.
The benefit of doing this is to have a renewable energy source and not have to pay for the install of the unit upfront. The cost of electricity would not improve for the school. In fact, there would be a higher risk that the cost would increase.
If the decision is made to do this for this year, we really have to get the submission process started immediately.
6/12- complete full site evaluation (no cost of obligation to town)
6/18 – Borrego submits firm proposal and contract
6/30 – Nashoba approves contract
8/26 – pull permits
9/25 – construction
12/15 – complete construction
12/20 – commission system
Warrantee for 5 years if there is damage on structures from installation. Borrego has to be responsible for the safety in the structure assessed properly.
Contact MWRA - Deer Island 100kwh. Cara will email us references. They have done 700 installations. Large installations in CA. East cost HQ is in Lowell, MA.
Bill Spratt’s Reaction
After the presentation from Borrego, our committee met with Bill to discuss the reaction. Bill was impressed with Borrego. He has talked to companies that are less reliable. Bill has worked hard to generate 11% in savings for two years totally 22% and now 7% this year (just by practicing efficiencies in energy use and improving habits). Totaling 500 KWH savings. Bottom line is that this solar array system will cost $2.7 million that we are somehow not paying. He is not sure that the 20yr contract is a good idea. The part that is uncomfortable for us is that we have to do all this so quickly. The School district currently gets electricity from Trans Canada at 11.9 cents for KWH.
The committee feels that we should look at local solar panel vendors as well. We should look at all the options and make careful decisions not hastily.
We have to put this back in perspective that we approached a PPA because of the library and the DPS reconstruction effort. Ideally, we would like to have solar solution for those buildings.
Ultimately, we decided that we will still have the site evaluation of the school district. Unfortunately, if we need a bid spec, we will not have money to develop specs.
Bill will let us know the results of the site evaluation. He will also check with the school lawyers.
He suggests, for the Library and DPS, looking at easy stuff to make more efficient first and keep the savings for the cost of a solar panel system in the future if that is the direction they decide to go. Look into LEED first and do as much as possible at the lower level.
Next Agenda
Budget discussion
Figure out what to recycle CFL… Paula…
Action Items
Chinloo – send Paula the budget. 4th of July schedule
Paula – Help with 4th of July
| 
