Energy panel debates use for stimulus: Rutland Herald Online

"To conserve or to create?

That was the question posed at a recent meeting of the Rutland Regional Planning Commission's energy committee following news that $80,000 in federal grant money was expected to flow to the commission for energy efficiency and conservation.

At the July 21 public forum, municipal energy committee and commission members debated whether to hire a staff person to educate residents on existing energy conservation ..."

Read the whole article: Energy panel debates use for stimulus: Rutland Herald Online

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NWRPC Tackles Energy

Wondering what other Regional Planning Commissions around the state are doing about energy? Check out this article from the Northwest Regional Planning Commission newsletter (click to see a larger image). You can read the entire newsletter here.

CVPS to build solar-array station: Rutland Herald Online

Central Vermont Public Service Corp. has received regulatory approval to build a 50-kilowatt solar-array power station along Route 7, near the CVPS district service center in Rutland Town.

The Public Service Board approved the $400,000 project last week. It includes about 265 solar panels, each 3 by 5-feet wide, arranged on the ground in 33 post-mounted arrays.

Several elements of the project will be built or installed by Stafford Technical Center students, including a shed, signage and landscape designs.

CV Solar and Wind, a private Rutland-based company, and ReKnew Energy Systems Inc., of South Royalton, will oversee construction with Stafford students providing assistance...

Read the whole story:
CVPS to build solar-array station: Rutland Herald Online

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Vermont Awarded Energy Money

VERMONT - $8,799,600 awarded July 27, 2009

The state of Vermont will use its Recovery Act allocation to fund incentives to advance renewable energy and energy efficiency measures across the state in the public, private, and residential sectors. The state will increase the development and deployment of cost-effective and environmentally sustainable electric power resources by offering grants and loans to residents, businesses, non-profits, government, and farms to help them install such renewable energy systems as solar, wind and geothermal.

The state also will establish a revolving loan and/or small grant program for public-serving non-profit or government institutions—including K-12 school districts, colleges, and universities—to implement energy efficiency measures or renewable energy projects.

In addition, Vermont will use SEP Recovery Act funds to install thermal solar renewable energy systems for heating and/or hot water to low-income residences. This effort will allow the state to continue to expand the weatherization program and realize greater energy savings.

After demonstrating successful implementation of its plan, the state will receive almost $11 million in additional funding, for a total of nearly $22 million.

Four other states and territories were awarded money, for a total of $54 million. Read the whole story here.

Save the Date! Renewable Energy Conference

Mark your calendars - the largest Renewable Energy Event in Vermont is happening this fall! The 8th Annual Vermont Renewable Energy Conference & Expo, 2009 will take place on Wednesday, October 28th at the Sheraton Burlington Hotel and Conference Center.

This year the annual conference is expanding to include a 1/2 day public expo opening Wednesday, October 28th at 12:00pm.

Event Hightlights

• Workshop Sessions-Solar, Biofuel, Wind, Geothermal, Biomass and Hydro
• Exhibits-Visit with the state's leading renewable energy companies!
• Public Expo opens Wednesday, October 28 at 12:00 pm
• Networking Reception-Wednesday, October 28th at 5:00 pm

Please visit the website at www.REVermont.org for program updates.

Meeting Notes July 21, 2009

While only about half of the committee could make it to the July Energy Committee meeting, the meeting was well attended by over twenty guests.

Annette Smith (Chair, Danby) began the meeting with introductions. There were several new faces, including many members of town energy committees, as well as representatives from regional organizations around the County. This meeting was recorded on video by Devin Krevetski. Cristina Kumka, representing the Rutland Herald, also recorded a portion of the audio.

Smith announced a small change to the agenda by proposing that the wind forum item be addressed first. The group brainstormed topics and speakers for the four-week series of wind-energy-related forums that the RRPC will host in September and October of this year. See the attached notes for details.

The minutes from the May meeting were approved by voice vote on a motion made by Eric Mach (Pawlet) and seconded by Ethan Swift (Brandon).

The discussion moved on to a discussion of and brainstorming session on the federal stimulus money allocated to the Rutland Regional Planning Commission by the Vermont State Legislature. Smith explained that the RRPC will be getting $40,000 per year for two years.

During the discussion, the group was informed that there are several examples of town plans that address alternative energy sources in detail, including Searsburg (for wind). Larry Courcelle (Mendon) also mentioned that the minutes from the past year of the full Planning Commission board meetings contain detailed programs which cover many different aspects of alternative energy generation.

Mark Blucher (Staff) started the discussion by referring to the broad guidelines for use of the money, provided as a handout. The RPCs are still waiting for more specific guidelines for their use of the money. Blucher also referred to the Rutland Regional Plan 2008 energy chapter suggested actions, which the Planning Commission will use as a guide when deciding how the funds are used. The Commission needs to use the funds to broadly benefit the twenty-seven towns in the Region.

The group briefly discussed the Vermont Community Development Fund (CEDF) grant money and application process. The next deadline for funding under this grant is August 14, 2009. There will be another RFP issued in January with a February 26, 2009 deadline.

The group brainstormed ideas for how the RRPC should use the stimulus money. Smith went around the room, inviting each person to share one or more ideas. After everyone had an opportunity to speak, Smith encouraged the group to flesh out an idea that several people mentioned about funding a demonstration project at the Stafford Technical Center. Several ideas were introduced, including a residential-sized solar and wind project, plus a methane-collection system on the landfill at the school. While several people spoke in favor of this idea, several people identified potential limitations, including space constraints at the school. Some thought that the Stafford idea was too narrow a focus for the Regional Planning Commission’s money.

The group’s priorities seemed to be educating the younger generations about energy efficiency and conservation, providing a trained workforce for “green” technology, increasing public awareness of current possibilities for efficiency and conservation (especially weatherization), and supporting town energy committees.

Several people also debated whether or not the money could be effectively used to fund a staff position hosted by the planning commission. This staff person would coordinate energy efforts around the region and provided technical assistance to those efforts.

As discussion wound down, Smith thanked everyone for attending the meeting and commented on the group’s good energy.

Brainstorming Notes

Wind Forum Topics

- Questions about technology itself – lifespan, pros/cons, ability to displace oil for energy generation

- Financial issues: tax assessment – property values, grand list, how much stays in town v. state, how are the actual properties on which wind is developed impacted?

- How do town plans address alternative energy sources? How should they address wind and on what scale?

- Job creation

- More information about wind energy potential in Rutland County as well as other types of alternative energy such as geothermal, hydro

- Weatherization

- Impacts of putting wind energy in – natural resources, impact on residents nearby

- What are the varieties of wind energy in terms of scale, ownership, etc

- More information about small scale wind, for example in support of agricultural operations – especially Vermont-made

- Hear more from people experienced with financing, building and living with wind power

- Social cost of energy use. Comparisons between wind and other energy sources, such as strip mining for coal: there is a gap between energy use and production in Rutland County. Environmental health issues.

- Comparisons between potential projects in Rutland County based on scale

- Economics of base load v.

- Independent objective source for real impacts of wind – dispel myths of wind.

- Energy inputs v. outputs – lifecycle analysis. Cost of unit of energy for different power sources (wind, coal, hydro, solar, etc).

- How does the grid operate, how much energy is actually transmissible?

- Geography of successful wind farms – where does wind work? (Include international examples.)

- Operations and maintenance, including decommissioning

- Speaker ideas: Van Jones, Greg Paul (Middlebury, ACORN group), Bernie Sanders (Subcom green job training), Amory Lovins (Rocky Mountain Institute), Lyman Orton (arts council – visioning/visualizing the future of energy in Vermont)

Role of RRPC

- What energy efficiency programs are currently operating in our region and how can we help them be more effective?

- Research for alternative energy – how would solar or wind really impact our region?

- Providing assistance for setting up and/or assisting town energy committees to help them become more active and involved, including helping towns or consortium apply for funding or develop more extensive strategies in town plans (staff assistance, hire consultants)

- Broad, county-wide discussion panels for main issues

- Use the $ for an efficiency competition between towns with an educational theme

- Could also partner with Geographic Targeting Program being run by Efficiency VT right now

- Green Mountain Community Energy Challenge being put on by VECAN

- Demonstration project at Stafford Technical Center using solar or wind and student work (see Mt Holly example) – help train a work force for renewable technology (good precedent for successful student projects)

- Educational projects: partner with CVPS, VECAN, pool resources to create a regional project that draws in a diverse group, with a focus on kids (see solar project being planned with Stafford for this fall – that project encompasses the installation of a 50 kW grid-connected solar project as a demonstration. Stafford students (electrical/plumbing, landscaping/forestry programs) will provide some labor and will learn about solar installation.) Demonstration residential-sized system using solar/wind could be done for about $40,000.

- Work with a local college student/class and conduct a county-wide energy audit (including all fuels/sources), then find ways to reduce use. We could have a big picture data base of energy use all around the region so that we can plan for localized efficiency and production projects.

- Promotion of currently available programs for energy efficiency – tax credits, loan programs, weatherization and incentive programs, etc.

- Identify opportunities for towns to band together and become more effective. Lending library for committees for books or videos.

- Button Up Vermont program model worked well last year – average savings of 30% (fuel and electric) – use the money to keep up public awareness

- Work force training for renewable energy in general

- Wind turbine or solar generation site in a public place that invites interaction with the public

- Existing or former hydro dam sites around the county – look into redevelopment of these sites as well as run-of-river

- Investigate biomass cogeneration facility near Rutland City – see examples around the state

- Assist town energy committees with grant writing projects, funding sources, etc. : ) Staff time to assist current communities and help new committees get started.

- Conservation and efficiency!

- Transportation issues??

- Partner with Efficiency Vermont, NeighborWorks, for example, for consistent, long term educational programs. Example: Efficiency Vermont programs that went into the schools.

- Vermont Technical College

- Need a good plan to make scarce resources effective

- Partner with Rutland City to do Eco-municipality training which would be open to all communities

- Energy independence and local generation: how to be independent?

- Demonstration project

- Study the best success stories and technologies so that we can emulate

- Partner with existing regional sustainability group to enable them to become more effective, for example, with grant writing

- Green building technologies and planned developments – minimizing footprint of development, locally sourced labor and materials. Staff position/program to look at and capture long term economic benefit of green technology and housing development. Low impact development techniques. Material conservation programs. Outreach to developers and to towns (town plans, zoning regs).

- Research activities for inventing new technologies and ways to generate energy – Stafford could also be the place for this type of activity.

- Make Stafford more accessible to all towns ???

- Development director who would be assigned to work for the towns and raise money.

- Put a circular in the Rutland Herald to be distributed about energy issues.

- Mobile training unit to train high school students about weatherization work to be done in their own towns? (see example – partnership between State and VT Tech)

- Poster contest to get kids involved

- Green Mountain College – example, Neigborworks is partnering with GMC to analyze their programs as well

- AmeriCorps Vista program

See the write-up on the Sustainable Rutland blog.

July Energy Committee Meeting Agenda

There will be a special meeting of the Energy Committee on July 21st at 6 pm to discuss stimulus funding with has been allocated to the Regional Planning Commissions around the state to deal with energy issues.

We will also incorporate the brainstorming session that we had planned for the June meeting.

The meeting will be held in the 2nd Floor Conference room of the Asa Bloomer Building on Merchants Row in Rutland City, VT.

Agenda

Welcome and Introductions

Approval of Meeting Notes

May 2009

Review of EECBG Requirements

Group Brainstorming Session

Town Projects

Role of RRPC

Wind Forum Series Topics

Adjourn

Frequently Asked Questions - Federal Stimulus Funding for Energy

We have been receiving many calls at the RRPC from folks interested in the status of energy funding coming to Vermont. There is so much information out there - but what applies specifically to the Rutland region? Here are some answers to a few frequently asked questions:

How much money is coming to Vermont for energy?

The Clean Energy Development Fund (CEDF) will be responsible for distributing most of the money. The CEDF will receive $21,999,000 in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds designated to the State Energy Program (SEP) and $9,593,500 in ARRA Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants (EECBG) funds in FY 2010.

How will the money be divided?

The Vermont legislature specifies that the ARRA funds are to be used for the following:

• The Vermont Small‐Scale Renewable Energy Incentive Program;
• Grant and loan programs for renewable energy resources;
• Grants and loans to thermal energy efficiency incentive programs, community scale renewable energy financing programs, certification and training for renewable energy workers, promotion of local biomass and geothermal heating, and anemometer loan program;
• $2 million for a public‐serving institutions efficiency and renewable energy grant and loan program;
• $2 million to the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board for nonprofit weatherization and renewables grants and loans;
• $2 million to the Vermont Telecommunications Authority to make grants of no more than $10,000 per turbine for the installation of small‐scale wind turbines and co-located cellular transmission towers;
• $880,000 to the 11 regional planning commissions ($80,000 to each) for energy efficiency and conservation activities eligible under the EECBG program.

What towns in the Rutland region are receiving formula grants?

Rutland City is one of the ten largest towns in Vermont and will receive a formula grant through the EECBG program in the amount of $78,900.

Is it too late to apply for federal funding for energy?

Although formula grant deadlines are quickly approaching or have already passed, because most of Vermont's stimulus money is going thought CEDF, most applicants in Vermont will apply through the CEDF. The formula grant deadline for Vermont's big funding allocations has already been met through the hard work of the Department of Public Service.

What is the Rutland Regional Planning Commission doing with its $80,000?

The RRPC has not yet decided on a plan for its funding. We will hold a meeting to discuss possibilities on July 21st at 6 pm in room 266 of the Asa Bloomer Building - everyone is welcome. The Department of Public Service has not yet published specific guidelines for this funding although there are Federal guidelines that will have to be considered.

Where can I find more information about the Clean Energy Development Fund (CEDF)?

Visit the CEDF page on the Department of Public Service website to link to their program plan, budget, and information about all their programs. Click here.

The Vermont CEDF FY 2010 Program Plan and Budget contains useful information, including

a description of the federal funds coming in (page 5), a summary of the Grant Program (starting page 8), and a table showing the FY 2010 CEDF Budget (page 15). Click here to download the pdf.

Where can I find more general information about federal stimulus money in Vermont?

Visit http://recovery.vermont.gov/energy for more useful information.