Trip to Montpelier highlighting town’s energy conservation work

Charlotte’s town garage continues to be an example to the rest of the state of energy efficiency, and on April 17 Deirdre Holmes, chair of the Charlotte Energy Committee, went to Montpelier to tout how the new building exemplifies what communities can do to save both energy and money.

Holmes’ testimony was as part of the Vermont Energy and Climate Action Network lobby day.

The group from Charlotte spoke with the energy committees from both the House and Senate. They were also invited to a meeting with Speaker of the House Jill Krowinski. as well as the Climate Solutions Caucus.

“It was a full day,” Holmes said.

The town garage is still drawing notice for both its solar panels and geothermal energy and how it was funded. At an October meeting, state and municipal officials and representatives from the Vermont Bond Bank celebrated the news that funding for the solar panels was a pilot project for financing these kinds of projects.

Among energy efficiencies of Charlotte’s garage drawing notice is that less than 25 percent of the energy solar panels are used by the garage. More than 75 percent of energy generated by the panels is used by other town buildings. Twenty percent of the electric power produced goes to town hall, 25 percent to the library, 20 percent to the senior center and 35 percent to the Charlotte Volunteer Fire and Rescue building.

Wolfger Schneider of the Charlotte Energy Committee said that between Earth Day in 2024 and in 2025 the rooftop solar panels on the garage had generated 123,000 kWh (kilowatt-hours) of electricity. This is actually 93 percent of the estimated power the panels would produce during that period. It was less this year because the solar panels were covered with snow during February.

Still, Schneider figures the 123,000 kWh produced would be enough electricity for him to drive his Leaf electric vehicle for 492,000 miles in a year “or almost 20 times around the Earth, something impossible at 500 miles a day, even if there were a perfect road around the equator.”

Schneider said he has solar panels on his home and he is producing more electricity than he can use. There are other costs associated with solar panels, like the cost of installing them, and the panels themselves are expensive, although they are steadily getting cheaper.

Still, he said, you can expect to break even in five to 10 years.

He installed his panels in 2011. For seven years he didn’t have any electricity costs. He didn’t have to start paying for electricity until he got his Leaf. Still that only comes to about $30 a month, a good bit less than gas would cost.

“If you’ve got the roof space for solar panels, and you have a need for electricity, nowadays it pays to put solar panels on there,” he said.

But orientation is important. The town garage roof is not oriented optimally. It runs east to west, and it would work better if it ran north-south, and there is a mountain to the east that sort of shades the panels in the morning.

“But it still produces probably 60 to 70 percent of what it could if it were located optimally,” Schneider said.

Holmes said the theme of the energy lobby day was thanking legislators for passing the Global Warming Solutions Act and connecting to ensure that what is happening in Montpelier is consistent with what is happening at the local level and vice versa.