Milton Captures Sun Rays for Savings, Education

Thanks to the natural power of the sun, the electric company will soon start paying the Milton Public Schools.

On sunny weekends during the school year and cloud-free days in the summer, the 250 solar panels on the roof of Collicot and Cunningham elementary schools will create enough energy to ship out electricity, according to Bill Ritchie, facilities director for the School Department.

And that estimated $12,000 to $15,000 savings per year is only part of the benefit of the soon-to-be-completed solar array, Ritchie said.

"Our payback is going to come fairly quicky," he said. "It's also a great thing for educating the kids about conservation."

The $298,000 project, financed almost entirely by a Massachusetts Technology Collaborative grant, is just one part of Milton's growing dedication to conservation and especially alternative energy such as wind and solar power.

Sustainable Milton, the town's leading advocacy group for such efforts, is pushing to get Milton grant money through the state from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a cooperative effort by ten Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

Solar panels can help, contributing to the effort to lower emissions of town buildings, depending on when a baseline for the five-year, 20-percent reduction test is set, said Sustainable Milton Vice President Tara Manno Richer at the group's meeting, Wednesday.

Opposition to the various projects is limited, though fierce depending on the subject. A proposed windmill that would be accessible from disputed lease land at the Granite Links Golf Course, which straddles Quincy and Milton, has come under fire from the club's owners, who worry the 300-foot turbine would disturb views.

But the town has voted to use eminent domain to make sure the project goes forward in 2011. Town officials say they hope to earn as much as $700,000 per year selling the energy generated from the turbine.

As for support or opposition to the larger greenhouse emissions initiative, a special town meeting will show where Milton voters stand in September.

Part of the checklist to receive the grant involves speeding up the town's application process for alternative energy projects. The Collicot and Cunningham solar panels took five years from when they were first concieved to complete, mainly because the town wanted to install the panels on the newest, greenest schools possible, Ritchie said. He also said any further projects will be quicker because the School Department and building committee already has this large array under its belt.

Elsewhere the sun's rays already power one other school buiding and will soon reach Town Hall.

Milton was recently awarded $150,000 in federal stimulus funds to construct a solar system on the roof of the municiple building. In all, Massachusetts cities and towns received $42.2 million through the Energy Efficiency and Federal Block Grant program.

Canton will use its money to convert its heating system at Rodman Preschool from steam to hot water, while Norwell will also install solar panels, at its middle school, according to Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources records.

The array on Milton Town Hall will be 25 to 28 kilowatts, a little less than half the output of the Collicot and Cunningham panels, and about ten times as powerful as those at the high school.

Last year Milton High School installed 10 solar panels, allowing students to examine power creation and usage from computers inside the school. This year's school project will also feature student observation and will link to the high school system. The cost for Collicot and Cunningham to the town's building committee came to $29,894 after the MTC grant.

Looking forward, Ritchie said he hopes to attract more grant money and install another large solar array on top of the field house at the high school.

"We're always looking for new projects," Ritchie said. "It all depends on the sun."

And, of course, a little bit of green.