New Hampshire Communities

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Here is our main gateway to other communities. By communities we do not just mean towns and cities, so if you want to add, feel free. We are actively seeking schools for posting as well.

1 New Hampshire Towns
2 Other States and their Towns

New Hampshire Towns

Town of Center Harbor

Town of Hampton Falls

Town of North Hampton

Triville Energy Committee

Mount Washington Valley

Lakes Region

Regional Efforts

Cool Monadnock

Recent Community News

News and Updates

4/7/09

Town of Franconia - The active membership of the Franconia and Regional Energy Team is growing. Through comradery, more can be achieved. They have established four projects through which they expect to drive greater reduction of local greenhouse gas emission.

They are as follows:

Energy Improvements for Existing Buildings
- By far the largest portion of the buildings and homes that will be in the Ammonoosuc basin twenty years from now are here right now. Those buildings and homes must be "heat tightened" to save energy, and prepare them for efficient "renewable" heating five or ten years from now. This economy offers an excellent opportunity to take giant steps in the heat-tightening of homes and buildings. What incentives will attract a large percentage of residents to hire local businesses to start heat-tightening their homes this summer? How can we prepare and encourage local tradesmen to do this work well? (Such work is new to current culture!)

Wind
- What are the goals of the locales in the Ammonoosuc basin, where the wind is sufficient to make power generation worth the time and expense of appropriate towers, and wind power generation would be consistent with land and wildlife conservation? Are "residential" wind generators as cost effective as residential solar systems, or will they be in the near future?

Geothermal Heating
- From a geological point of view, what regional locales lend themselves to what kinds of geothermal heat exchange systems? Is there a good means of capping local tax exemptions for geothermal heating systems? Are state laws now, or soon to be, in place for regional communities to adopt such tax exemptions?

Community Awareness
- It is "comfortable" to sign a contract with the local oil or gas company to take care of heating our home. The only work involved is writing another monthly check. Getting out of any "comfort zone", even if we know we're simply moving into another, perhaps more elegant one, is not attractive, - particularly if we are scrambling to find "stability," and if the impact of not moving doesn't ruffle us regularly. In Hot, Flat, and Crowded, Tom Friedman makes it clear that cutting greenhouse gas 80% by 2050, when by that time Asia will have added three more US-sized gas generators to the stack, won't be good enough. The US must take a much more ambitious pace and set the example.

So how do we spread the word and make the Ammonoosuc basin aware of our opportunity to lead the pack? - to be one of the first "Energetically" modern parts of the country?

Town of Ossipee - The Ossipee Energy Committee has completed it "nuts and bolts" with By-Laws complete and a slate of officers in place. They are participating in the New Hampshire Carbon Challenge with the launch scheduled to start with the elementary school the week of Earth Day.

Town of Plastow - P. Michael Dorman of the Plastow Energy Committee attended a conference March 30th to April 1st sponsored by the Eastern States Building Federation and the NH building Officials Association. The primary theme was Green Building and Energy conservation. He was very impressed with the direction that the EPA and ICC are taking to conserve and cut back on the need for foreign oil etc. The National Association of Home Builders are also very much in favor of the direction.

Town of Roxbury -At town meeting Roxbury voted to approve having the Roxbury Energy Committee research the possibility of developing a small wind farm that would provide income to the Town and help offset current fossil fuel use. Their goal is to create an educational model that other towns could follow to achieve similar goals. They are not expecting to create as much wind energy as a large commercial operation would hope for but, to seek a way for smaller, more local groups to actively participate in greenhouse gas reduction. Energy committee meetings are at 7pm Tuesday evenings at town hall and they welcome anyone from other towns to join or send suggestions.

Town of Sharon - The Sharon Energy Committee is trying to help their Conservation Commission make Green Up a great day. They have been asked to help update the town energy plan and would like to have suggestions. There is no zoning in Sharon.

2/3/09

Town of Colebrook - On Sat, Jan 24, the 'Colebrook Energy Committee, Colebrook Academy Key Club, and LaPerle's IGA teamed up to giveaway/sell at a discount, 205 CFL's through a rebate program with EFI (Energy Federation Inc in Westborough, Ma), PSNH, and NHEC. For four frigid hours, three high schoolers and an energy committee member educated people about reducing energy cost by converting to low mercury CFL's. An article and photo were submitted to their local newspapers.

They are working with schools, hospital, and recreation center, to put in a Biomass boiler as the first stage of Colebrook's district heating solution. Dr. Morris Pierce from the Univ. Rochester did some preliminary work on several local initiatives for district and institutional biomass heating projects, and met with town officials, Colebrook Energy Committee members, the Balsams plant manager, and the hospital plant manager.

Another 18 StayWarmNH kits were installed in addition to the first six done prior to the holidays. Tomorrow, we take down our CEEC and Town displays at the local rest stop and "Interpretive Center" on Route 3. They were displayed at the Colebrook Library in Nov. and Dec. They will continue to have these displays make the rounds to schools, and other public places to educate the local public about the recycling, energy conservation, and new energy solutions already in place in our area.

Town of Gilmanton - The Gilmanton Energy Committee's warrant articles concerning renewable energy have been passed by the selectmen of the town and now will be on the docket in March for vote. A current project is a regional energy fair at their new public library. While still in the preliminary stages of planning the committee would like any and all information from Energy Committees that have hosted an energy expo. They are considering taking on a role in the community that would go a step further in helping with energy awareness to lower income families. Town meeting is in March and they would like to provide the people who do come to vote with some energy information concerning the RSA's on renewable energy so that they will pass. If any other energy committees have some information as to how they went about informing people and passing the RSA's in their town please contact the GEC at pommedefrite@hotmail.com.

Town of Jaffrey - The Town's street lighting system have been a principal focus of the Jaffrey Energy Committee in 2008. The Town's ad hoc Street Lighting Committee, established by the Selectmen in late 2007 with a mandate to "study the town's lighting to save money and reduce global warming" and chaired by Energy Committee Vice-Chair Harry Young, has completed a comprehensive survey of all of the Town's streetlights.

Town of Marlborough - Marlborough Energy Committee has a representative on the Building Committee for planning the new school. Many "green" issues have been raised with the architect. One result is that the new school will be heated by a wood pellet system with propane backup, a major shift from oil to local renewable fuel.

Town of Ossipee - The Ossipee Energy Committee had it's first meeting last Wednesday, Jan. 14th. Five people in attended. With their their mission statement completed they have determined to hold meetings on the 3rd Tuesday of the month at 2pm at the library. They plan to look over Wolfeboro's LEC By-laws and those in the Carbon Coalition Handbook to guide the formation of their own at their next meeting. Representatives from the committee attended the Ossipee Selectmen's meeting this past Monday to request they place advertisements for bids on the improvements indicated in the energy audit performed this past Spring on their Town Hall.

Town of Temple - The Temple Economical Energy Committee met with the Board of Selectmen to present "Phase One"/2009 recommendations for retrofitting projects that they determined were needed to upgrade the energy efficiency of municipal buildings. Recommendations were based on the committee's assessments of three energy related reports which were all completed by the end of December. Two of them were reports from energy audits the committee had arranged to have conducted for the Municipal Building/Fire Department and Library. The third was the Cool Monadnock Report for Temple that was based on an analysis of their municipal energy inventory using, among other tools, the EPA Portfolio Manager Benchmarking software.

The Board of Selectmen agreed that all of the recommendations were high priority projects that should move forward as soon as funding is available. They immediately approved the funds for the materials necessary for to begin the project of air sealing work in all three buildings. A work force of volunteers will do the work under the supervision of a professional carpenter. The energy committee will pursue as many avenues as they can find to fund the other greatly needed retrofitting projects for 2009.

Town of Strafford - The Town of Strafford recently approved the construction of a new Town Office building, and with the assistance of the Strafford Energy Committee voted to increase the amount in the warrant article to provide for enhanced insulation of the building (cellulose) and a geothermal heating/cooling system. Go to their community page to find out more.

NH Schools

University of New Hampshire

Inter-Lakes School District

Berlin School District

SAU 16: Exeter Regional Coop

Other "Communities"

Not just towns and schools and not just NH.

Co-op Power - The members and supporters of Co-op Power are creating a multi-class, multi-racial movement for a sustainable and just energy future. We are a consumer-owned energy cooperative serving New York and New England.

NH online "communities":

Seacoast NRG a blog dedicated to providing news and reasoned opinion on issues related to energy. Go to SeacoastNRG

SERG - Sustainable Energy Resource Group (SERG) promotes energy conservation, efficiency and renewables through the formation of town energy committees to help residents, businesses and the municipalities reduce energy consumption, save money, increase the sustainable use of renewables, strengthen the local economy and improve the environment. SERG Updates and Events

Lakes Region Planning Commission energy page - This resource is intended to encourage, promote, or require property owners to adopt alternative energy practices in the design, location, and construction of residential housing and commercial buildings. Models and existing examples of design standards and land use regulations are provided to help communities and citizens understand how alternative energy and energy efficient practices can be implemented.

Other States and their Towns

Plymouth Massachusetts Energy Committee

Plymouth MA has completed significant work on wind energy and has a fantastic website including their wind projects, electricity aggregation projects and eduction. Worth the look!

Hull Wind Project - Massachusetts