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Clean Energy Toolkit Topic: Hire a Shared Energy Manager

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Capacity issues—whether funding or staff time—can be a recurring obstacle for local clean energy efforts. The additional responsibilities and specialized knowledge necessary to pursue such efforts can be overwhelming for busy facilities managers or town administrators. However, it can also be hard for cities and towns to justify hiring a full-time staff person devoted to energy, especially for smaller towns. Sharing an energy manager’s services can be a convenient way to improve services and reduce costs. This strategy outlines how communities with part-time or intermittent energy-related staffing needs can collaborate to hire a shared position and/or contract for energy manager services. Read more.

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Clean Energy Toolkit Topic: Geothermal Energy

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Geothermal energy technology captures heat energy stored in the Earth’s crust and converts it into electric or heat energy. Geothermal resources can be tapped at multiple depths, ranging from low-temperatures in the shallow ground to hot rock and water found several miles below the surface of the Earth, to molten rock (magma) found even deeper. Hot water and steam can be captured to drive a turbine and generate electricity. However, the most common application of geothermal energy is found in shallow heat exchange pumps, referred to as ground-source heat pumps, that transfer energy from the ground and use it to provide heating, cooling, and/or hot water services. Read more.

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Clean Energy Toolkit Topic: Fuel Cells

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Electrochemical fuel cells convert fuel directly into electric current by triggering a chemical reaction between the fuel and an oxidant using an electrolyte. So long as the fuel (reactant) and oxidant are constantly replenished, fuel cells can generate current indefinitely, in contrast to a conventional battery, which is a closed system with finite amounts of chemicals and that eventually loses charge.

Fuel cells can range in size from the tiny (powering watches or small appliances) to the mid-range (fuel-cell-powered cars) to grid-level storage options (in particular, renewable electricity can be used to create hydrogen, which can power a fuel cell at a later point in time). Read more.

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Clean Energy Toolkit Topic: Estimate Local Energy Use Baseline

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Before identifying energy goals, and consequent strategies to reach those goals, communities must first develop an energy use profile of the community as a whole, including the municipal, residential, commercial and industrial sectors. Unfortunately, residential, commercial and industrial data is currently not available at the municipal level from utilities, so that portion of the profile must be estimated based on census data, labor statistics and building energy survey analyses.

This strategy describes how to derive local energy use baselines for the residential, commercial and industrial sectors in Massachusetts communities. However, these data are publically available on the national level and could be replicated for a community anywhere in the United States (with some modifications to regional-specific assumptions). In the interest of simplicity, these baselines include only electricity, natural gas and fuel oil consumption. Communities that rely heavily on other fuels (e.g., wood, propane or district heating) should consider expanding the methodology to account for those fuel types. Read more.

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Clean Energy Toolkit Topic: Establish Energy Internship Program

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Collaborating with students can be an efficient and low-cost way to build greater capacity for clean energy efforts. Through an internship program, students can apply their academic knowledge and experiences to help the municipality implement clean energy projects, and the municipality can deliver practical experience and professional development to students. This strategy describes how municipalities can establish an ongoing internship program that will provide assistance with clean energy efforts and serve as a hands-on learning experience for students interested in the planning and implementation of municipal-led energy projects. Read more.

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Energy Efficiency

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Efficiency is a broad concept that refers, in general, to the elimination of waste. The efficiency of a system is measured as a ratio of the useful work it produces to the energy resources it consumes; a system becomes more efficient as the ratio approaches 1. Energy efficiency is a term used to describe using less energy to do the same amount of work; the corollary of increased energy efficiency is therefore increased productivity (using the same amount of energy to do more work).

Energy efficiency is often treated as a resource in itself, with the rationale that saving a unit of energy is functionally just as effective as (if not superior to) producing an extra unit of energy. Energy efficiency tends to be the easiest resource in which to invest, politically and economically speaking, as it generally costs less to save energy than to generate it, and financial payback for efficiency measures can be substantial. Read more.

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Clean Energy Toolkit Topic: Contract for Solar Energy Management Services

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Municipalities interested in solar have multiple options for pursuing it, including direct ownership, community shared solar, or a power purchase agreement (PPA). Each approach to solar has different potential risks and benefits. A solar PPA may be a good option if access to up-front capital to purchase a solar photovoltaic (PV) system is an issue.

With a solar energy management services (EMS) contract, Massachusetts municipalities may lease public space, such as a school roof or capped landfill, for the installation of a third-party owned and operated solar PV system and enter into a long-term PPA for the electricity produced by the system through a single, streamlined solicitation process. Over the term of the contract, the municipality purchases 100% of the energy generated by the PV system. With net metering, credits for power generated are applied to the municipality’s account—either the building’s utility account or (with virtual net metering) the municipality’s other utility accounts. When the system produces more power than is needed at the project site, excess power is exported to the grid, the utility meter effectively spins backward, and the customer is credited at near-retail rate for the electricity sent on to the grid. This strategy describes how to obtain electricity from a renewable source through an EMS model.

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Energy 101

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Everything requires energy to respire, move, grow and reproduce. Most energy on Earth is originally derived from the sun, the only input into an otherwise closed and self-sustaining system. In physics, energy is defined as the “ability to do work,” and can take on multiple forms. Energy can be converted from one form to another, but there are always losses associated with the conversion (according to the second law of thermodynamics). These forms of energy include:

  • Potential energy
  • Kinetic energy
  • Thermal or heat energy
  • Chemical energy
  • Electric energy
  • Electromagnetic energy
  • Electrochemical energy
  • Sound energy
  • Nuclear or atomic energy

The most recognizable renewable energy technologies, such as solar panels or wind turbines, work by harvesting naturally available forms of energy and converting them into electric energy. Read more.

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Clean Energy Toolkit Topic: Develop Anaerobic Digestion

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With a commercial food waste ban going into effect in Massachusetts in October 2014, businesses and institutions are considering alternatives to disposing of organic waste in the trash. Anaerobic digestion is one such alternative. Similar to composting, but in an environment devoid of oxygen, anaerobic digestion produces byproducts such as methane (which can fuel the generation of heat or electricity) and liquid or solid digestate (which can be used as fertilizer, soil amendment, and more). Thus, disposal of food waste and other organic materials can become a source of revenue rather than just an expense. Anaerobic digestion/combined heat and power (AD/CHP) may sometimes be referred to as waste-to-energy, bioenergy, biofuel, or biomass, although these broader terms can include the burning of trash, wood, or other agricultural materials. This strategy outlines considerations for municipalities interested in developing anaerobic digestion/combined heat and power. Read more.

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Clean Energy Toolkit Topioc: Design a School Energy Curriculum

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Schools can be a valuable resource for distributing information about clean energy to youth and their parents. Energy-related curricula with entertaining and interesting hooks educate students about energy issues and increase their awareness of energy opportunities, both in terms of their current behavior and their future interests. The National Energy Education Development (NEED) Project provides energy education and support to teachers and students across the country with the goal of increasing youth understanding of energy issues. Teachers and students can access a range of educational materials, including activity guides, books, games, and puzzles.

This strategy highlights just a few of NEED’s curriculum options that have proven to be both cost-effective to implement and successful in improving knowledge and awareness of clean energy issues. The ability for schools to apply the recommendations for each topic will depend upon available resources, capacity, and student interest. Teachers and school administrators should assess which strategies will be most successful given the unique circumstances of their school. Read more.

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