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[personal profile] mem_winterhill
I just got this email from GECA. I bought my car through their electric vehicles program. But I liked this and wanted to post it because I thought their explanation of the Class 1 green energy was helpful. People who I spoke with had concerns about that, but I didn't explain it as well as they do here. It supports the production of local green energy by funding projects around this area. 

Somerville's program details: https://cce.somervillema.gov/

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 

Green Energy Consumers Alliance logo
 

Hi Mary,

Have you been solicited by "green" electricity suppliers like CleanChoice Energy? Maybe you want to support renewable energy, but are skeptical if your money will actually go toward shifting our electricity away from fossil fuels. You're right to be skeptical! 

Don't take the bait.

Your community already has a great community electricity aggregation program, ensuring that everyone in town is helping to add more renewable energy to our electric grid with each and every bill (affordably). But the competing offers from other suppliers are not so green.

Here's a quick summary of why your community's program is better.

When you buy green electricity, you want this to happen.

NEWF_Campaign_Page_v4_shifting_power_pool-2

But guess what? It doesn't always. You can buy renewable energy to line someone's pockets, or you can buy renewable energy to help build more of it. How do you tell the difference?

In MA & RI, laws require that utilities and suppliers buy an increasing amount of local "Class 1" or "new" renewable energy on our behalf. This creates an incentive to build renewable generators in New England, and by voluntarily choosing to add more Class 1, your whole community is driving up demand.

class1

Most "green" electricity suppliers only offer what's required by law, and the rest comes from projects that don't need your money. If it's not Class 1,  you're doing nothing to help shut down fossil fuel plants in our region, or anywhere else.

Lucky for you, your community's aggregation is focused on Class 1. If your interest is piqued, go more in depth on our blog: https://blog.greenenergyconsumers.org/blog/there-are-three-ways-to-buy-green-electricity-two-are-good-and-one-is-bad

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[personal profile] mem_winterhill
Although the Solarize program was a limited time, I still get questions from people who know I was involved with it and am a solar home owner myself. 

At our last Winter Hill Neighborhood meeting, it came up again. So I thought I'd create a post with the link I want to share with people about this. 

I am often asked about my installer: we went with
SunBug, and we are very happy with the system 4+ years later. Everything they estimated about our production is totally still on track, and we remain pleased with the physical installation.

The city program used
Solar Flair, another MA company. These folks know our city well now after 100 installations, and understand our permitting and inspection folks. I hear people were happy with them as well. 

One interesting data set for people researching this issue: the MA state organization that tracks "clean energy" tech and programs is the Mass-CEC. They keep a list of all the installations and their cost. So you can see which installers worked in which towns, what the costs were, and so on. Now--keep in mind costs may vary as people had Solarize programs running. or they needed attic structural stuff that might have been in the billing. But at least it's a ballpark of costs and vendors that you can investigate. 

Access the huge spreadsheet of MA installations here: 
https://www.masscec.com/public-records-requests 

On that page, scroll down to "PV in PTS" link. This is an huge excel spreadsheet you can explore. 

And for those of you who are data nerds and want to know how our New England electricity is generated every day, check this out. That mountain of natural gas we use each day... sigh. 
https://www.iso-ne.com/isoexpress/web/charts .
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[personal profile] mem_winterhill
Just came across my emails. As part of Sustainaville week, the city is offering a bus trip to an abbey. We will see some green energy, and obtain some carbohydrate energy, it seems. 

Here's what I got in the letter:
 
Somerville's SustainaVille week is coming up, and we're getting involved. On April 28th, we're co-hosting a renewable energy tour with Somerville's Office of Sustainability and Environment to show off the big impacts of Somerville Community Choice Electricity (CCE). You'll see wind, solar, and even geothermal in action.

Come on the tour!
The tour is free & open to the public!

We're offering a free bus ride from Somerville High School to beautiful Mount St. Mary's Abbey in Wrentham, MA. There, we'll see solar and a 100kW wind turbine (supported by Somerville's CCE program) up close. We'll also enjoy a free tasting of Trappistine Candy, handmade onsite by the Sisters of the Abbey.

Tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sustainaville-wind-solar-tour-with-handmade-candy-tasting-tickets-43751355482

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