While most Wellesley residents look to the sun for its soothing warmth and illuminating rays, the Wellesley Municipal Light Plant may soon be seeing it as a source of electricity.
The town received a $150,000 grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the “stimulus package,” in February, money intended to subsidize the installation of solar voltaic panels at the Municipal Light Plant.
The town will chip in approximately $170,000 to install the panels, which should produce about 60,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a year, a fraction of the 250 million kWh used by Wellesley residents a year, according to Plant Manager Joyce. If all goes as planned the panels will completely power the Light Plant’s garage and warehouse, effectively reducing their emissions to nothing.
“Essentially it’s part of a holistic approach that the town is taking to try and reduce carbon emissions on the residential, commercial and municipal side,” Deputy Director Chris Ketchen said.
The panels will convert the sunlight from DC to AC current, which will be fed into an electric panel in the garage. With the government subsidy, the solar power will cost around 20 cents per kWh, about 14 cents more than the town generally pays per kWh.
The panels are intended to reduce the town’s carbon footprint, not its financial burden, Joyce said. Though, he points out, the cost of solar power should remain fixed for the foreseeable future, while the price of nonrenewable power may rise.
“Although it’s a bit expensive now, 15 or 20 years from now it may not be,” Joyce said.
This is the first time Wellesley has received a competitive stimulus grant, according to Ketchen. They applied for the grant in the fall and got word that it had been accepted in February.
A goal adopted at the 2009 Town Meeting calls for the town to reduce emissions by 10 percent by 2013. The town wanted to lead by example so it voluntarily upped its reduction to 20 percent, Ketchen said.
“If we’re going to try to get townwide residential and commercial reduction of our carbon emissions by 10 percent, it’s really up to town government to lead the way,” Ketchen said.
“The town made a decision to seek more environmentally friendly and greener approaches to meeting our energy needs,” Ketchen said. “Using solar energy is one tool in the overall toolbox.”
