The Windham Regional Commission is pleased to announce $66,000 from the third round of the Windham County Renewable Energy Program has been awarded to the development of rooftop solar on the Red Clover Commons. The Energy Committee received three strong applications and chose this project as it best met program priorities. The installation will serve the elderly and disabled affordable housing development which is managed by a consortium of non-profit entities including Brattleboro Housing Partnerships, Housing Vermont, and Red Clover Commons Limited Partnership. The energy project will include an educational component, displaying energy generation and consumption on a screen in the shared lobby space. The development, which is located on a redeveloped brownfields site, will be completed before May 2019.
The Windham Regional Commission’s Windham County Renewable Energy Grant Program (WCREP) offers matching grants for renewable energy generation projects within Windham County. The funding is awarded through the Clean Energy Development Fund (CEDF). This is part of the funding that was dedicated for use in Windham County as part of the State’s settlement agreement with Entergy Vermont Yankee.
This is the third round of funding the WCREP has administered. Altogether, the program has supported 8 installation projects and 2 feasibility studies. The installation technologies range from rooftop solar (including the Red Clover Commons and the Great River Terrace installations), ground mounted solar (including the School for International Training’s 150kW array which demonstrative agriculture and SEVCA’s Community Solar for Community Action), biomass combined heat and power at Allard Lumber, and a food waste anaerobic digester under construction at the Windham Solid Waste District. For a full list of WCREP funded projects, visit the WRC Energy Grant Programspage. These installations collectively equate to over 6,800 tons of displaced or avoided (for new developments) carbon dioxide emissions, a major greenhouse gas. “It’s wonderful for Windham Regional Commission to have assisted in the implementation of these great and impactful installations across the County,” said Marion Major, WRC planner. “The Energy Committee has worked hard to make the program as accessible as possible to all types of applicants and technologies and it shows.”
The Windham Regional Commission is one of eleven regional planning commissions in Vermont, and since 1965 has been assisting the 27 towns in southeastern Vermont to provide effective local government and work cooperatively with them to address regional issues.
For more information contact Marion Major the Windham Regional Commission at 802-257-4547 x109 or mmajor@windhamregion.org, or visit our website at www.windhamregional.org
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