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Murphy: Solar's the future
Plainville: We're already there
Friday, February 20, 2009 10:10 PM EST
By RALPH HOHMAN
Staff writer
PLAINVILLE — It didn’t really matter that blustery weather kept U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy, District 5, off the Plainville High School roof on Friday afternoon. Steve Bussel, facilities director for Plainville Community Schools, clicked up a projected, real-time image of the roof and its 232 “thin-film” solar panels.
From their computers, students can monitor the intensity of local sunlight and the power yield of those panels. Some envision a future in which the novelty of something like that will wear off, and oil will become an oddity.
“This really is potentially transformational,” Murphy said, “for schools, for businesses and for homes — if we can expand this model out.”
Murphy came to the high school to celebrate its functioning solar energy system and two others set to go online soon at Louis Toffolon Elementary School and Linden Street School. And he came to talk about the future.
Murphy had planned to walk the roof with reporters, but settled for spreading the word from inside about how a newly enacted federal stimulus package could help harness sunlight around the state.
“Connecticut is going to be eligible for $40 million under the state energy program fund,” Murphy said. “And our hope is that some, if not all, of that money will go directly to fund projects like this.”
That meant, Murphy said, the money would go to the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund, which helped pay for the Plainville school projects. Installing the solar energy system at Plainville High School cost the town less than $300,000, Bussel said. The solar panels are projected to save $32,000 to $40,000 a year, and to generate up to $10,000 a year in renewable energy credits. Energy savings are expected to pay for the project in 7.5 to 9.5 years.
The town expects all three schools to save Plainville a combined $62,000 in electricity, and to provide an environmental benefit equivalent to planting 800 trees or taking 40 cars off the road, according to Murphy’s office.
“I’m very proud to be able to say we were able to get in there and take back some of the money we pay every month ... and have it reinvested in our community,” said state Rep. Betty Boukus, D-Plainville.
Alternative energy also create jobs right now, Murphy said, and entrepreneurial opportunity in the future.
Lise Dondy, president of the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund, said the goal of her agency is to become unnecessary, as market forces make solar and other alternatives competitive with oil and power-company electricity.
“Part of that future is really new technology,” Dondy said. “So we need to continue to invent and improve, and that’s what America is really great at.”
For now, Plainville is ahead of the solar curve, Town Council Chairman Chris Wazorko said.
“If you want to talk about solar energy and renewable resources,” Wazorsko said, “Plainville is the place you need to be.”
Ralph Hohman can be reached at rhohman@newbritainherald.com or by calling (860) 225-4601, ext. 236.
URL: http://www.newbritainherald.com/articles/2009/02/20/news/doc499f6f96b2782934950983.prt
© 2009 newbritainherald.com, a Journal Register Property
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