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The following was submitted by Spark Energy Conservation.
Winchester has proudly been a Green Communities municipality since 2010. The Green Communities Division is a part of the MA Department of Energy Resources (DOER) which provides grants, technical assistance and local support from regional coordinators to help municipalities reduce energy use and costs by implementing clean energy projects in municipal buildings, facilities and schools.
Although there are now 351 cities and towns that can call themselves a Massachusetts Green Community, Winchester was among the first few municipalities to join the program and to begin writing grants. To date, Winchester has received over $1.6 million in grant funding from the Green Communities program.
This year’s $99,999 grant supports four projects, with a total cost of $140,000. Incentives from Eversource and National Grid will contribute $32,000 and the town will supply $8,000.
The projects are for replacing old transformers with new, energy efficient transformers at the McCall Middle School and at the Water Treatment Plant, insulating the attic at the Wildwood Cemetery house, and installing LED lighting to replace the older, fluorescent lighting at the McCall Middle School.
These four projects are estimated to save the town $12,600 each year in energy expenses. From a climate change perspective, this work will prevent 17 tons of CO2 from being emitted per year. To remove 17 tons of CO2, it would require approximately 850 trees.
Since becoming a Green Community 14 years ago, Winchester has completed dozens of energy saving projects across all our town facilities. As technology constantly changes, the town works to keep identifying more efficiency improvements to reduce its energy expenses as well as its carbon footprint.
