West Hartford Saving Energy And Helping Taxpayers

Published Dec. 1, 2008 at 12:00 p.m.

Remember when Mom would say "Close the door, whaddya think we're heating the whole neighborhood"? Or "Close the fridge, you're losing cold air", or "Shut off the light, we don't own shares the electric company!"

It looks like West Hartford is looking for some lessons from Mom.

It's time to cut energy costs.

West Hartford's energy costs are a whopping $16 million a year and they are looking to conserve in some obvious and time honored ways. A clean energy task force has suggested tighter windows, dimmer lights, controls on air flow, consolidation of after-school programs into one building instead of three, centralized storage, and use of solar power. They will be looking to pursue a comprehensive plan to save on electricity, water use, gasoline, oil, natural gas and other areas as well, to produce a greener and much leaner energy policy.

The Courant reported that the town is

looking to sign a power-purchase agreement with a solar energy company. The company would install solar panels on several town buildings, and own and maintain those panels. The town would buy the power generated by the panels, saving roughly $5,000 to $10,000 in electricity costs annually over the life of a 20-year contract.

Two California-based companies are vying for the work, Tioga Energy and Borrego Solar. Town officials are trying to negotiate the best price agreement...Up to four town and school buildings and as many as 400 kilowatts of solar electricity would be involved. This would be in addition to solar power systems already operating at several schools.

Energy companies get subsidies through the state's Clean Energy Fund to help buy the panels and towns have to produce energy audits of the buildings, [Councilman] Brennan said.

One question comes to mind here; Whatever happened to the $100,000 energy consultant that we contracted for? Did that produce any meaningful results for us?

In any case, it's good that West Hartford is seeking some kind of comprehensive energy plan. We shouldn't be spending lots of money on items that have a real long term payback though, or a small percentage payback. Let's hope that any conservation/green ideas that are in the plan can realize payback quickly and/or significantly.

Municipalities all over the country are facing the same issues, and they all start off with some sort of audit. There are States which have many different incentive programs - here is the one for CT.

Maybe the town can install a few windmills (wind power generators) too, to generate some electricity. There are many websites which can help with this idea - here is one. They could install them up on Avon Mountain. Maybe they can even get a local college involved, and get some of their "engineers in training" to do the project for free; maybe working in conjunction with some of our own talented high school students. There are some interesting ideas all over the Internet that our town can take advantage of.

Maybe our Town can look to the past. Afterall, West Hartford was built along Trout Brook because of it's energy creating possibilities. What about the water that falls incessantly through our town? Can we make use of Hydro power?

Here are some more ideas:

- Hold energy conservation competitions between schools or departments...See whose energy bill can be the least in any given month. Give a prize.

- Department heads should be directed to provide the Town Manager's office with proposals for individual department energy saving proposals.

- Office equipment - establish a policy of turning off all PCs, monitors, printers, scanners, etc. each night; turning off copiers rather than leaving them in energy saver mode; and turning off other office equipment.

- They should cut down on their photocopying

- Create a policy for all newly purchased vehicles be alternative fuel/the most fuel efficient technology when replacing vehicles. Use biofuels if possible - UCONN has some initiatives and there is the BioPur facility in Bethlehem, CT and another website with biofuels for CT.

- Assess needs and cut back on the number of vehicles where appropriate.

- Purchase pre-paid gasoline cards - good only at stations that have the lowest prices on gasoline (like Cumberland Farms).

- Minimize Holiday Lighting

- Shut off that annoying music that they play at the front door of Town Hall. They don't need the radio on all day and night.


Do YOU have any good ideas?


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