BURLINGTON – In a continued effort to assist a extra sustainable Commonwealth, the Baker-Polito Administration in the present day introduced $8.1 million in grants via the Hole Vitality Grant Program to help water utilities, non-profits and small companies. companies that cut back power use, enhance power effectivity, and generate renewable power.
The town of Burlington acquired this grant, for $177,805 to put in a 66.1 kW rooftop photovoltaic system together with new weatherization and window stripping measures on the Mill Pond water remedy plant. The electrical energy supplier is Eversource.
Hole Vitality Grants are administered by the Massachusetts Division of Environmental Safety (MassDEP), which operates the initiative beneath the Clear Vitality Outcomes Program. By filling the “hole” in venture financing, these grants are made potential via the Local weather Safety and Mitigation Expendable Belief and allow recipients to make use of utility incentives and funds from different sources to construct or renovate. -installation of power effectivity and clear power tasks. This yr, the 63 recipients who acquired the grants signify three sectors of the state: municipal water services; non-profit multi-family inexpensive housing group; and agricultural and food-producing non-profits and small companies.
“Serving to municipalities, small companies and non-profit organizations actively work to scale back their power use and use clear, renewable power is one among our high environmental priorities,” mentioned Governor Charlie Baker. “These Hole Vitality Grant Program funds will significantly help these municipalities and organizations as they work to enhance effectivity, cut back power use, and generate clear power to generate quick and long-term power financial savings and contribute to the state’s efforts to scale back its carbon footprint. “
“The Hole Vitality Grant Program permits municipal water utilities and different organizations to make use of essential funding sources, together with power effectivity incentives from electrical utilities, to completely implement power conservation measures,” mentioned Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito. “Importantly, with decrease power payments, these entities can reinvest their operational price financial savings of their services and organizational missions.”
These 63 grant awards will assist greater than 100 tasks to be accomplished by the top of 2024. The tasks are anticipated to generate greater than 9,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of annual electrical energy financial savings or onsite era of fresh power, which sufficient to energy greater than 250 households and cut back carbon emissions by 3,359 metric tons. In whole, grantees anticipate an estimated annual financial savings of as much as $1,642,963.
“Massachusetts is a nationwide chief in power effectivity and the event of renewable power, the place the one-of-a-kind Hole Vitality Grant Program enhances our collective efforts and delivers useful outcomes throughout the Commonwealth,” mentioned Vitality and Environmental Affairs Secretary Beth Card. “These essential grants present a constructive return on funding, not just for the organizations that obtain funding, but additionally for the state, power utilities, and the general public.”
“Based mostly on the success of the Hole Vitality Grant Program over the previous decade, MassDEP is happy to increase this system to non-profit multi-family inexpensive housing and non-profit agricultural and meals distribution entities,” mentioned MassDEP Commissioner Martin Suuberg. “These entities, reminiscent of municipal water utilities, might be restricted by financing entry to deep power financial savings and renewable power alternatives via power enhancements. The non-profit organizations we funded with a Hole Vitality grant can now cut back power prices and reinvest the financial savings of their applications, serving lots of the most susceptible and in want of our state.
This yr marks the primary time the Hole Vitality Grant Program has expanded its attain to incorporate non-profit organizations and small companies. In 2018, the second spherical of Hole Vitality grants awarded 43 consuming water and wastewater remedy services $4 million, then funded 36 power tasks that save services $1.3 million per yr and generate roughly 9,580 MWh of annual electrical energy financial savings or on-site clear power era. In 2014, the primary spherical of Hole Vitality grants included awards to 21 water and wastewater services of greater than $1.7 million for 30 tasks that generated sufficient electrical energy to completely warmth and energy almost 900 Massachusetts households per yr for 15 years.
“In our efforts to mitigate the local weather disaster, pursuing power effectivity initiatives is a essential a part of decreasing carbon emissions,” mentioned State Senator Julian Cyr (D-Truro). “I’m happy that water services in Edgartown, Orleans, and Yarmouth in addition to non-profits targeted on housing in Nantucket and Martha’s Winery will obtain cash from the Hole Vitality Grant Program that may assist fund native venture that may proceed the clear journey of our group. .”
“Elliot Farm is a superb small enterprise in Lakeville that continues to thrive and develop,” mentioned State Senator Michael Rodrigues (D-Westport), Chair of the Senate Committee on Methods and Means. “I congratulate Elliot Farm as a recipient of the Massachusetts Hole Vitality Grant Program and thank them for being a mannequin enterprise that exhibits how a enterprise can develop, be power environment friendly, and contribute to a more healthy planet .”
