Westport board considers more electric cars

New grants may be available, Energy Committee says

By Bruce Burdett
Posted 3/22/19

If state incentives are available, Westport should consider adding more and longer range electric cars to its fleet, Energy Committee members agreed last week.

The fleet now includes one …

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Westport board considers more electric cars

New grants may be available, Energy Committee says

Posted

If state incentives are available, Westport should consider adding more and longer range electric cars to its fleet, Energy Committee members agreed last week.

The fleet now includes one all-electric vehicle, a Nissan Leaf kept behind Town Hall alongside a charging station. That car was obtained under a state program that pitched in money toward the lease and provided the charging station free of charge.

The Massachusetts fund ran out but has since been replenished with help from $20 million — the state’s share of a settlement with Volkswagen involving the company’s falsification of emissions data.

It might be a good idea to look into applying for help to obtain a second electric car and charging station behind the Town Hall Annex, where a number of employees work who might put it to good use, said chairman Walter Barnes.

In fact, said the chairman, the town should consider getting as many as three new electric vehicles — he noted that one nearby town recently added three while Marion added four.

Board member Tony Connors, who led the effort to obtain the first car, agreed to look into the matter further.

The present car might get more use, one said, if its range was better. He said Town Administrator Tim King said he would use it for trips to Taunton, Boston and other places if it could go further between charges.

It was suggested that Westport could talk to other towns to find out what they have done to encourage driver use of the electric cars. One said that Westport has a generous mileage reimbursement program; perhaps a cap could be put on drivers’ personal car use.

The range of electric cars has improved markedly in recent years, said Max Kohlenberg. His wife has an all-electric Chevy Bolt that performs extremely well, he said, and his own electric car has hit 100,000 miles without issues.

Another said he has heard that Porsche is coming out with an all-electric model - that ought to be incentive enough, he joked.

Landfill solar

Construction should start in a couple of weeks on Ameresco’s new small but profitable solar facility at the closed town landfill off Hixbridge Road, the committee was told.

The company will pay the town a lease of $16,000 per year over the 20-year life of the agreement, along with another $16,500 per year in PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) money.

Total payments to the town over 20 years will be $651,000.

“It just reinforces that we didn’t go wrong on this one,” Mr. Barnes said.

The relatively small solar project should produce about 2/3 of a megawatt of electric power.

LED streetlights

The town’s new LED street lights have been purchased, delivered and are now sitting at the highway garage.

It’s hard to say when they’ll actually be installed, Mr. Barnes said, because the manufacturer is still trying to arrange for the purchase of the old street lights from the utility company (Eversource).

“That’s the hangup — we were told that it will be a problem.”

A state grant that will pay a third of the project cost — the town paid $26,319 for the fixtures and controls and must still be for installation and purchase of the old lights. Staying within the project budget of $60,000 should not be an issue, he said.

Green Communities

Westport is making progress toward its goal of being recognized as a Green Communities town, the committee learned.

To qualify, the town will have to reduce its energy consumption by 20 percent over five years; doing so will enable it to obtain Green Communities grants that can be used, in part, to pay for changes necessary to obtain those energy savings. Fairhaven, one of many participating towns recently obtained $174,000, for instance.

“I didn’t realize how laborious a task it was going to be to fill out the application,” Chairman Barnes said, but the town is getting help from Eric Arbeene of the Southeastern Planning and Economic Development District and should meet is October 1 deadline.

One suggestion for helping meet that goal was the placement of solar panels on the new police station and one or more of the town’s schools.

Two committee members met with the police chief to broach that idea and said that he is open to the idea if there is money to pay for it.

They also said the chief did not favor their idea of putting the panels on the front (south facing) side of the station for aesthetic reasons, suggesting that the back of the station might be better.

Any decisions should hinge on an analysis of the solar energy potential of the various locations, committee members agreed.

Membership variety

Members discussed, without making any decisions, whether the Energy Committee might benefit from more and more varied membership.

Chairman Barnes said the committee (and he) would benefit from having a vice chairman as in the past. Nobody raised a hand to volunteer.

“I think we need at least one woman” to add perspective, one said.

Another suggested a millennial, for balance and perspective.

Yet another said a teacher from the town’s schools would be a good addition.

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