Lyme Energy Committee
Lyme Town Offices
PO Box 126
Lyme, NH. 03768
Monday, Oct 15, 2007
Present: Sue MacKenzie, Matt Brown Dan O’Hara, Carola Lea, Shirley Tullar
Absent: Tina Cullenberg, Tom Hunton, Claudia Kern, Charles Ragan, Gary Phetteplace, Rebecca Lovejoy
Membership
Sue had recommended that we expand the committee. We now have three “potential” new members: Shirley Tullar, Gary Phetteplace and Rebecca Lovejoy (Gary and Becky will not be able to attend meetings until Jan). Some of the new members will be alternates as LEC is supposed to be a committee of 9.
Jan. will be an organizational meeting—we will decide on terms then. At the moment terms are:
Tina1 yr.
Matt..1 yr.
Tom..1 yr.
Claudia..2 yr.
Carola..3 yr.
Sue..3 yr.
Off the Grid house visit
Denis Kelemen (former LEC member) had offered to set up a time to visit Julie Wolff and see her off- the- grid house.
The visit is set for Sun Nov 18. All interested will meet at Nichols at 9:00am and car pool to Julie’s house.
Action: Dan O’Hara will be in contact with Julie.
Carbon Coalition
The CC will do a presentation on Nov. 15 at 7:15pm at Academy Hall, “Local Solutions to a Global Problem.”
Action: Sue is inviting other energy commissions in NH and Vt. And will put a notice on the listserve.
Vt. Earth Institute Course on Global Warming.
Sue decided we had enough to do and we all agreed
Solar panels on the School
Carola reported that she and Tom Hunton had met with the principal, Jeff Valence to discuss the possibility.
Tom ( president of American Capital Energy, sent Carola the following blurb about his company: American Capital Energy provides full-service solar energy project integration and installation for large commercial enterprises. The company is committed to furthering the utilization of solar energy by America’s most forward thinking companies by offering customized turnkey solar systems designed for long term performance and verifiable return on investment. American Capital Energy is run by solar project professionals with decades of combined experience in project development and deep
knowledge in the solar industry. For more on American Capital Energy, please visit www.americancapitalenergy.com.) gave a very articulate presentation of the benefits of installing solar panels. A few figures:
Solar panels should save the school 10%-20% on its electric bill. Tom emphasized that he’ll need to see 12 months of school electric bills to verify potential savings.
The cost would be $120,000-130,000; there are many cost saving options
At the outset there would be 3rd party ownership of the panels but the school would own them in the end
The school could get the material from American Capitel Energy at cost
Tom thought the project would have green power appeal; would appeal to people for financial, educational, and leadership reasons.
Carola looked into possible rebates from PSNH (there aren’t any for solar, only for lighting). She also placed a call to the man in charge of Dresden Buildings and Grounds.
At the meeting Jeff Valence also offered to have the school newsletter be another outlet for LEC news.
Action: a Lyme Buildings and Grounds Committee-- a subcommittee of the Lyme school board, will discuss the solar panel possibility at its next meeting. Jeff will tell Carola and Tom when that will be. Matt and Dan expressed interest in being at the meeting too and Carola will tell them time/date.
Matt will continue the conversation with PSNH; Dan will contact Dresden Building and Grounds and he agreed to find out for our next meeting the tax structure for including photovoltaic solar energy in school construction
Matt made the comment that even if the installation is not completed the project has potential for significant success in the effort (putting together the proposal, raising awareness of possibilities, etc).
Town Business
Annual Report is due Dec. 28
Budget worksheet due Oct19. Carola circulated a worksheet draft of what she’ll submit.
Action: Tina will do the Annual Report; Carola will do the Budget worksheet.
Focus of Committee
Probably: facilitating educational programs.
Solar Hot Water heaters
Perhaps we’ll have someone from Plymouth give a presentation in the spring.
Town Garage
Matt reported that Nichols and the Town Garage had shared wood pellet deliveries and will be checking in on how both deliveries are progressing.
Meeting time
Perhaps we should meet at 7:30 instead of 7:00. We’ll discuss that at out next meeting, Nov. 19.
Respectfully submitted,
Carola Lea
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