The Green Ark

A few weeks ago, I heard about this Local Energy Solutions Conference, hosted by Clean Air – Cool Planet. It was definitely last minute, but I decided to go. I knew it would be a rewarding experience for me and it would also help me gain a better understanding of NHSEA.

The conference was held on a Saturday and it was a one-day thing, versus the three-day, super-overwhelming conference I went to back in March. This is not to say that the Building Energy Conference wasn’t rewarding in itself. It totally was, but it was a lot for me to take in all at once. This conference I recently attended was low-key and overall, less overwhelming for me.

I must have looked silly. I walked around the main exhibit hall in circles for a bit, observing and writing down extensive notes in my trusty notepad. First thing I noticed were the people and the variety

I saw:

• Municipal energy committees/groups
• Utility providers (ex. the representatives from Unitil)
• Building “green” groups
• Renewable energy solution providers, (ex. representatives from Freedom Renewable Energy)
• Energy auditors
• Other people interested in energy solutions, like me!

I saw a lot of new things, well… new to me anyway. I didn’t know that there were entire groups dedicated to building green. That’s neat. I was fortunate enough to get a chance to talk to a lot of people at the event, like the ones I listed above. I learned about green builders and groups like “Clean Air – Cool Planet”, which I had never heard about before until this event. Everybody I spoke to was kind, friendly, and excited to share their insights, ideas and perspectives with me (the pest). I took it all in, like a sponge. I want to learn more and gather different perspectives on energy and the environment from others. I felt like a pest most of the time, but nobody led me to believe I was being a pest. It was just my own thinking, really.

Anyway, there is a challenge. A big challenge and I bet everybody I talked to that day would agree with me. “How do we go about getting all of our communities involved?” I’ve been thinking about it for a while now, ever since I started talking with NHSEA. My goal as a designer is to create a visual message. Community? What is community now? Not to insult the people of this region, but we just don’t think in terms of “community”. We all have our own little homes on our little plots of land with our little fences bounding us into our space and away from the rest of the world. People are mostly insular now-a-days, only caring for the individual. (Well, the last statement is an entire discussion in itself that I will spare for another day.) This is a challenge I face as a “visual communicator” in all of the work that I do. Out of all the things I learned at the event, this one is the most important.

Overall, the Energy Conference provided a valuable resource for me. I learned more than I thought I would in a one-day event.

So, everybody’s talking about PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy), but first, let me tell you how I heard all about PACE.

1. Back in April, I attended a meeting of the Energy & Environmental Advisory Committee in my hometown of Derry, NH. Among other things, they discussed New Hampshire Senate HB 1554, otherwise known as the PACE bill.

2. Earlier this month, I attended an event hosted by NHSEA. The event featured unique methods for businesses and individuals to find funding for their renewable energy projects. (It’s also the event I mentioned in my previous blog entry.) It was an extremely informative event. NHSEA’s president, Clay Mitchell, gave a presentation and happened to mention PACE.

I was recently informed that on May 12, 2010 the New Hampshire Senate passed HB 1554 (the PACE bill). So, what is PACE. For one thing, PACE stands for Property Assessed Clean Energy. Everybody’s been talking about it and yes, it does sound complicated to me. Let me try and explain it. From what I gathered, PACE allows municipalities to fund renewable energy projects proposed by it’s residents. First, the town has to “join” it. Then, a resident of the town can go to the municipality and ask for funding from the municipality. So, the municipality gives the resident the money to fund the project in the form of a loan. But it’s not really a loan, it’s built in the form of an extra tax added to the house for a certain number of years. I guess it makes sense because the house is the “object” getting the green improvements. If the resident sells the house, the tax stays with the house until it’s “paid off”, like a loan. So complicated.

• Read about HB 1554 here.
• NHSEA also has a page discussing HB 1554 here.

Summary: PACE is an option for towns all over NH. It gives the participating town’s residents another funding option for their renewable energy projects. I’m not sure how I feel about it, but it’s an option now. I hope it works out!