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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - AEC - 02/15/2016 Meeting Minutes Alternative Energy Committee Time: Monday,January 5, 2015 Location: Town Hall Basement Meeting Room Attendees: Alternative Energy Committee Shaun Selha—Co-Chair Marie Caristi-MacDonald—Co-Chair Steve Wenner David Eisenhaure Andrew Muir Mary Jo Larson Patricia Gooding Josiah Stevenson Committee Friends Chris Senior The following items were discussed: 1. Meeting Minutes • Josiah Stevenson submitted January Meeting for Approval. They were approved. • Marie Caristi to transcribe Shaun Selha's "Meeting Recap" email for November and December text onto official letterhead for approval at the March Meeting. 2. Renewable Energy Initiatives • Palmer Capital PV Array Lease Agreement and PPA • Both the Lease Agreement and PPA have been reviewed and approved by Palmer and Town Council. Shaun Selha sent finalized documents to Palmer the morning of 2/17/15 for signature. Once Palmer signs them, the Town Manager will sign them to make them fully executed. • Annual Town Meeting Warrant Article submitted to Board of Selectmen for forwarding to the Planning Board for the leasing of the other two plots of land that comprise the "old landfill" for the PV Array that Palmer is developing. Three three parcels of land are B4-05- 048,B4-06-025B, and B4-06-003. • Eric Seuss discussed the status of the "Landfill Post-Closure Permit" with CDM Smith (engineering consultant). CDM Smith noted that Cohasset does not currently have a "Landfill Post-Closure Permit" as the application was denied many years ago for various reasons. They advised that the best course of action would be to meet with the DEP to discuss the denial conditions and negotiate what is required to correct the conditions, if they still exist. At a minimum, the Town would need to provide supplemental information to the DEP, file a Notice of Landfill Operation for the property, and request a certificate of compliance for the wetland work from the Town Conservation Commission. Eric to work with CDM Smith to set up the DEP meeting. • Solar City Virtual Net Metering Credit(VNMC)Agreement • The VNMC Agreement has been reviewed and approved by Solar City and Town Council. Shaun Selha sent finalized document to Solar City the morning of 2/17/15 for signature. Once Solar City signs it, the Town Manager will sign it to make it fully executed. 3. Green Communities Certification Initiative • QC#1:Adopt"As-of-Right Siting"-Draft Annual Town Meeting Warrant Article language submitted to Chris Senior as well as Town Council. Draft is approved and will now be submitted to Board of Selectmen on 2/17/15 for their recommendation of consideration before the Planning Board. The Planning Board will hold a public meeting/discussion on it to vote for inclusion at the Annual Town Meeting. • QC#2:Adopt Expedited Application/Permitting Process (12-month)-Cohasset already satisfies this criteria. No follow-up work required. • QC#3:Establish an Energy Use Baseline With a Plan to Reduce Baseline by 20% in 5 Years -Patricia Gooding completed upload of Town data (electricity, natural gas, fuel oil, diesel, gasoline)for 2014 to MassEnergyInsight EMS. With that benchmarking complete we can then construct the plan for energy reduction that will include the Municipal Facility ECM implementation and Streetlight Conversion project. Patricia to find a sample "Energy Reduction Plan" on DOER website to see what is required in the write-up. Team to a tasked for the completion of the plan at or by the March AEC meeting. Patricia will also schedule a meeting with Chris Senior and Brian Joyce to demonstrate the functionality the MassEnergyInsight system and how data can be uploaded and reports run. • QC#4:Purchase only Fuel-Efficient Vehicles-Steve Wenner completed the Municipal Vehicle inventory. There are six (6)vehicles that are ruled as "non-exempt" under this qualification criteria. Two (2) are for the Fire Department, two (2)for the School Department, and two (2)for the DPW. Four of the six vehicles are less than 10 years old. The vehicles only need to be replaced with fuel-efficient vehicles at the end of their useful lives. No further action needs to be taken. • QC#5:Adoption of Stretch Code-Draft Annual Town Meeting Warrant Article language submitted to Chris Senior as well as Town Council. Draft is approved and will now be submitted to Board of Selectmen for their recommendation of consideration before the Advisory Board. Once the Advisory Board review is complete the article will be added to the Annual Town Meeting agenda. 4. Energy Conservation Measure Implementation • Schools-Lighting retrofits are in progress at the schools. New energy efficient motors and variable frequency drives for them (pumps and fans)have been shipped and will be implemented soon. • Other Municipal Facilities-The Town has signed the contracts for the lighting retrofits associated with the Police/Fire Station and the Main Library. The work will be scheduled shortly. • Streetlight Procurement and Conversion-Brian Joyce and Chris Senior met with National Grid in the beginning of January but have made no progress on the negotiations with them because of the snow storms putting discussions on hold. The school committee was enthusiastic about the possibility of a group of students assisting with the streetlight inventory initiative. They noted that many of the students have taken geographic information system (GIS)mapping classes and could put together the GIS map indicating where all of the "functional/operational' streetlights are. Dave DeGennaro to follow-up with applicable teachers to coordinate efforts between Brian Joyce and the Student Group. 5. Miscellaneous New Business • The AEC presented before the School Committee on 2/11/15. The presentation is attached and was well received. The School Committee and parents present seem to be genuinely excited about the initiatives and think they make sense. • The next AEC Meeting will be held on Monday, 3/2/15 at 7:30 p.m. in the Town Hall Basement Conference Room (unless the Community Room is available at the High School). • Andrew Muir recommended that we ensure a link to the School Committee Presentation be posted on the AEC website as well as a copy of the presentation and approved meeting minutes. Shaun Selha to follow-up with applicable Town personnel. • The recommendation was made for the AEC to talk to 143 T.V. about giving a similar presentation on the air ("Talk of the Town")to try to reach a broader Cohasset audience and educate them on the initiatives the AEC is involved with. Respectfully submitted, Shaun Selha Alternative Energy Committee