West Hartford Touting 100 Percent Renewable Energy Use

WEST HARTFORD, CT — West Hartford’s municipal electricity use for the 2019-20 fiscal year was "officially 100 percent renewable," Mayor Shari Cantor announced this week.

The Town partnered with Bonneville Environmental Foundation to purchase renewable energy certificates to balance the 15 Million kilowatt-hours of electricity used in municipal operations, including all town and school buildings and street and traffic lights, Cantor said.

A renewable energy certificate, or REC, is a market-based instrument that represents the property rights to the environmental, social and other non-power attributes of renewable electricity generation. RECs are issued when electricity is generated and delivered to the electricity grid from a renewable energy resource.

Through the purchase of Green-e certified RECs, "the town of West Hartford has ensured that its use of electricity from the local grid is balanced by electricity generation from renewable resources elsewhere," Cantor said.

The environmental impact of the purchase is a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions equal to 10,676 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent or 2,307 passenger vehicles driven for a year, town officials said.

West Hartford has more than 1.6 megawatts of solar panels installed on 12 buildings, including seven schools.

"This year we felt it was important to step up our level of commitment to a clean energy future," Cantor said. "Being able to publicly declare our achievement of reaching 100% renewable electricity is part of West Hartford's standard practice to lead by example. We hope to encourage our residents, businesses, and other communities across the nation to set goals and take their own steps towards energy efficiency and clean energy. This is an investment in our future."

According to Catherine Diviney, West Hartford’s Energy Specialist, the Town’s fiscal year 2019-20 REC purchase cost $25,000. That is less than 0.5 percent of the town’s normal utility expenses and is directly offset by savings of $72,000 through the town’s Virtual Net Metering contract.