Boston – Senator Stephen M. Brewer (D-Barre) announced today that the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) will award funding to the Towns of Ashburnham, Orange, Palmer and Ware, located in his district in the following amounts:

 

Ashburnham - $150,000 in order to install two photovoltaic (PV) projects on the Ashburnham public safety building and Oakmont Regional High School. The projects are expected to produce 41,060 kwHrs of clean power annually. The projects will include a web-based monitoring system where residents with internet access can view the current and historical output of the PV arrays and the equivalent amount of CO2 emissions offset by the projects.

 

Orange - $150,000 to replace 3 boilers at Fisher Hill Elementary, Butterfield Elementary, and the Amory building. Replacing these boilers will save an additional 5,240 gallons of fuel oil per year.

 

Palmer - $18,722 to install a solar hot water system at the Water Pollution Control facility.

 

Ware - $53,137 for energy efficiency projects at the Town Hall, the Police Station and the Water Treatment plant. The town estimates these projects will result in an annual cost savings of $13,371.

 

DOER released $12.2 million in Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants (EECBG) from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), while 35 communities - including some of the 97 receiving grants - will share $825,000 in technical consulting services to provide local officials with expertise necessary to undertake a variety of energy projects. Capped at $150,000 each, these grants will help municipalities pay for shovel-ready projects at municipal buildings and schools, including solar photovoltaic and solar thermal installations; thermal efficiency measures in oil- or propane-heated buildings, such as new high efficiency boilers and furnaces or improved efficiency in existing ones, replacement or improvement of heat delivery systems, and increased insulation or window replacement; and reduction ("buy-down") of the total cost of efficiency measures identified by energy performance contractors. Additionally, this grant funding will save or create over two hundred jobs throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.