Energy Advisory Committee

MEAC Minutes Attendees: Tim Shea, Dan Costin, Dan Jones, Becky Wigg, Anne Watson, Kate Stephenson, Lisa Certa (EAC), Barbara, Geoff, Ken Jones, Alex DePillis Kate reviewed the agenda. Barbara volunteered to be the head of the municipal group. Attendees thought the meeting notes from last month’s meeting were great! Geoff moved to approve the meeting notes. Tim seconded. Unanimous approval of October meeting notes. Electric Resistance Heat Group, Barbara  Met with Paul Markowitz and South Burlington and Waterbury energy committees. Discussed outreach on baseboard heat. Barbara recommends diving into outreach now at the beginning of the heating system. o Need to approach the condominium associations. o Dan Jones – Independence Green group has looked at heat pumps because one member was interested. Many have installed direct vent propane and do a community buy for propane. At the current price for propane, they aren’t inclined to move on this. o Anne’s condo association (River Station by the coop) would be a good candidate. They have baseboard hot water fueled by propane. o Kate - We have a map from the planning department that shows all the condos, with owners, # of units, etc.  Freedom drive have 5 different associations. Does the committee know anyone from this neighborhood?  Laura is looking into the names of the officers of the associations. o Subcommittee is working on presentation and outreach materials. o Barbara has an intern interested in these issues. Solar Electric Group, Anne  Sent out a survey to all the solar providers we could find. o Group will review the responses and make the information available across the state through VECAN, VNRC, etc. o Created a spreadsheet to track the information. o Aim is to reach non-profits, others who can’t put solar on their roof  Want to open community solar to local investors, and identify local landowners willing to host a community project. Municipal Group, Barbara  Contacted Tim Perrin at Efficiency Vermont to see if he can be involved in the subcommittee.  Tom McCardle will also be involved in the group.   Planning meetings with Tom and EVT.  Will schedule a walk-through of all the municipal buildings. Looking at the water treatment plant where there might be potential for efficiency gains.  Ken – Rec center is also has big potential.  EVT put together a municipal dashboard.  City council approved the additional solar capacity from the solar installation. We will not get RECs for this additional capacity. Outreach Group, Kate  Aim to develop an outreach plan by the end of the year. Using a sample from South Burlington as a starting point. o Developing a topic to focus on in each quarter: Electric thermal, solar, transportation, weatherization and thermal. o Working on strategies for each of those themes.  Considering web, social media, events, etc.  Barbara – discussed a newsletter or blog, too.  Kate is chasing down details on our email address, word press site, etc. o Does someone know how to access the google calendar on the word press site?  City’s new site is live and the MEAC site is up to date. Kate has access to add as much as we want to that page. It links to our word press site. o Are google docs available publicly? No, these are for internal use only. If someone makes a request to see them, we need to make them available.  Team wants to use Net Zero Montpelier as the brand on the word press site. Use the logo from EVT.  Geoff – how is the John Snell project to photograph solar installations going? It’s in the works, but need to figure out what to do with them. o Can we diversify to include heat pumps, EVs, blowing insulation, etc.? o Outreach folder has a place to host these photos. Post your photos there if you have them. o Kate met with Andi last week. The photos and stories could be used in the EAN dashboard (pilot in December)  Make the connection between people and technology in the photos. o Selfies with your clean energy? o Ken - Rooftop solar is pretty much the same story. Do we need 100 stories saying the same thing? Could we pair a couple stories with a map that shows all the installations?  Could go either way. Some may view the map as saying that we already have enough solar.  If everyone who could do solar did, we’d only each 40% in Montpelier.  Opportunity to put a display in the SunCommon pop-up store between Thanksgiving and Christmas. o Hosting heat pump workshops, free booze, wine tastings, etc. o If we wanted to host an event, we could approach them about it. o Ken - Slide show with photos, slides with information, calls to action, etc.?   Becky volunteered to help create some visuals o Dan J. – trying to find someone at TD bank  House tour? Transportation, Dan Costin  City also has a transportation committee, which is distinct from the transportation subcommittee of the MEAC  City’s Transportation Committee o Met last week and approved bylaws o Discussed the Montpelier in Motion plan  Prepared by an outside company, detailed how to improve bike and pedestrian use, relieve congestion downtown, action items for the next 5 years  Doesn’t discuss climate, but will help with our goals  Includes short-term biking actions – painting and rule changes that work with the existing infrastructure  Also includes infrastructure improvements that the City can use when they undertake these projects  Cost-effective by minimizing impact on infrastructure, e.g. change heavily parked streets to one-way so that there’s more room for bikes.  Identified all the gaps where there aren’t sidewalks, poorly lit cross-walks (calls for lighted cross-walk signs), etc.  There’s money for the projects through the alternative transportation fund ($40k per year)  Transportation Committee decides where the money goes, what projects to undertake o Dan Costin – moved that MEAC support the implementation of the Montpelier in Motion plan.  Kate thought the plan had good stuff.  Geoff seconds the motion.  Anne has concerns about where the sidewalk ends on Elm street and the Rec fields.  Planning commission discussion trails and don’t want to designate trails on private land.  The motion passed unanimously. o Dan Costin plans to write a blog post on why MEAC supports the Montpelier In Motion plan.  MEAC transportation subcommittee o Co-hosted a well-attended car share event with Car Share Vermont. Anne talked to Emily Lovin at Efficiency Vermont (working on a whole-house label, energy disclosure requirement at the point of sale for residential properties). EVT is developing a tool and looking for volunteers to pilot the program in a voluntary capacity. The City could eventually require the disclosure but that would require a charter change.   Ken Jones – we should talk to real estate brokers to see if there’s interest now.  Anne will try to get a copy and circulate it. Ken – Pat Moulton (Commissioner of economic development) invited central Vermont CEOs to look at project in Denmark. Project Zero under which companies in the municipality participate in net zero activities.  Houses are rate A through F and interest rates change depending on the rating.  Pat and others trying to plan a trip to Denmark in May.  Ken met with Peter Fairweather, who thinks this could help jumpstart more housing in Montpelier.  Central Vermont: Vermont Creamery, Cabot, Rock of Ages, Union Mutual, Vermont Mutual, National Life, Green Mountain Power Dan Jones – Showed his map of offstreet parking in Montpelier, which coincides with the best space for high-density housing development. The parking spaces dump water and pollution into the river and are not generating much revenue for the City. Dan J. is looking at opportunities to change how transportation happens in the City. He’s also looking at opportunities to build out the district heat system and potential to develop a co-op to manage the system. Alex – GMP has hit their net-metering limit, but they may allow some systems. GMP also published a map that shows distribution lines, along with distributed generation installations. In Montpelier, the distribution lines are all still green, meaning there’s capacity to take energy.  Barbara – How does this affect the solar plans we have? o Alex – do you meet GMPs exceptions and is there room on the distribution system? Don’t forget the VECAN conference December 5. Look for the email from Joey. Scott is almost finished with compiling the data on municipal usage. Vermontivate offered to do a training for the committee. Committee declined. 3E Thermal is Capstone Community Action’s new landlord initiative. They have money for low- income efficiency, but could offer the training to anyone. Anne suggested talking to Kevin Casey at the City and Ashley at Montpelier Alive.