Melinda Tuhus Photo
The city’s on the verge of announcing it has met an ambitious goal: have government purchase 20 percent renewable energy by 2010. And a new source of green energy is on the way.
So said City Hall’s first “director of sustainability.”
“New Haven was the first city in Connecticut to make the commitment to 20 percent renewable energy by 2010,” said Christine Eppstein-Tang (pictured), the sustainability director, “and the state policy was modeled around New Haven’s.”
That was back in 2004. Now the city is on the cusp of meeting that commitment, Eppstein-Tang reported, when a new energy contract begins in June. It will boost the percent of renewable energy the city purchases from 8 percent to 13 percent.
Another 7 percent comes from the renewable energy that’s part of the standard offer from the electrical grid, which includes a varying mix of Class I renewables like wind, solar, biomass, landfill gas, small hydro and fuel cells. The energy comes from the Northeast U.S. or eastern Canada.
Meanwhile, city government has also emerged as a leader in a second sustainability question: convincing private homeowners to buy clean energy. And that success in turn will now help the city use even more clean energy.
The city has been seeking to influence private homeowners to sign up for a statewide program called Clean Energy Options.
Bob Wall runs that program through the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund. The fund was created by the General Assembly in 2000 and is paid for from a surcharge on residential and commercial electric bills. Cities like New Haven signed up for the program, promising to convince their homeowners to sign up for clean energy sources.
A highlight of the effort was a friendly contest between the Elm City and West Hartford to see which city could inspire the most residents to buy renewable energy at a modest premium for home use.
New Haven won, and has stayed on top more or less ever since.
“New Haven is still number 1 – we’re in Olympic mode, and New Haven has the gold,” Wall said. By the end of December, 1,199 ratepayers had signed up, “which is fantastic.” West Hartford had 1,146. Statewide, 23,000 families have signed up so far.
In addition, 27 homes or businesses to date have installed clean energy systems, most opting for a PV (photovoltaic) system.
New Haven’s successes have earned the city a prize, 23 kilowatts of solar arrays to be installed on public buildings. So far, a two-kilowatt array has been installed at Common Ground High School (pictured at the right of the roof).
The city got another clean energy boost last spring when it became the site of one of four small wind demonstrations projects around the state. That came from another program overseen by the Clean Energy Fund. The wind turbine is to be installed at one end of Long Wharf, to power the small building that houses the city’s Visitors Bureau. (Click here to read about that.) Giovanni Zinn, an environmental consultant at City Hall, said many delays have been encountered, so the Clean Energy Fund had to switch manufacturers. Now he expects the turbine to be installed this spring.
Zinn added that he wants to install a photovaltic panel and a solar thermal panel on the building, to constitute — with the wind turbine — a renewable energy demonstration project.
“We’ll have all three in the same place and we’ll put up a board explaining the different forms of renewable energy and how it will save the city money,” he said.
Bob Wall said he is impressed with New Haven’s clean energy progress: “They’ve structured their electrical contracts to include a growing percentage of clean-energy certificates and it grows each year. We’re also aware that their school system has been a leader in supporting high-performance features. Barnard School is a LEED-certified building that includes a PV system, but other schools are also being built to green standards, and that’s an important step toward leading the way in Connecticut to greening our building stock.”
Bridgeport has also met its 20 percent by 2010 goal. Wall said Mayor John DeStefano and Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch “are walking their talk. It sounds great to make a fancy pledge or a climate commitment, but it’s another thing to back it up, especially in these economic circumstances. And they’ve both been very savvy in getting excellent deals for their electricity. They’ve gone out to bid on that and have gotten good prices and have been able to reinvest some of the significant savings to support clean energy.”