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Each year when the Academy Award nominations are announced there’s a lot of buzz about what an honor it is just to be nominated. Well now we know exactly how they feel. Because that’s how we felt with the recent news that SmartPower is a “finalist” for the 16th Annual Platts Global Energy Awards.  If this is the Academy Awards of Energy, we truly are honored just to be nominated!

Signs on to help expand “Solarize Connecticut” Program

Washington, DC – SmartPower, the nation’s leading non-profit marketing organization dedicated to promoting clean, renewable energy today announced the hire of Bernie Pelletier as a new Community Outreach Manager in Connecticut.

Pelletier is an active member of the West Hartford Clean Energy Task Force and, along with others on that committee, led the successful Solarize West Hartford campaign in 2013/2014. Since he has retired from his actuarial career he has devoted himself to the mission of Sustainability – which encompasses Environmental, Economic, and Social elements.

As Community Outreach Manager, Mr. Pelletier will be working closely with the entire SmartPower team to implement all aspects of the Solarize Connecticut program.  Solarize Connecticut is a partnership between SmartPower, the Connecticut Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority and The John Merck Fund.

“We are indeed fortunate to have someone of Bernie’s stature joining our team,” said SmartPower President, Brian F. Keane. “Bernie is a known quantity throughout Connecticut and to our Solarize Campaigns. We’re excited that now he’ll officially be a part of the SmartPower Team.”

The “Solarize” Campaign is a community “group-buy” for solar that creates solid deadlines and builds trust  — both of which have been barriers to solar consumers. And with several financing options available to Connecticut residents, solar can often be installed on homes with no money down.

The program has dramatically reduced the costs of solar – dropping the soft costs of solar by 20%.  And perhaps even more exciting, a full 20% of those who participated had never considered purchasing solar before, proving we can now break through to the mainstream consumer.

We have now completed three phases of Solarize Connecticut  — and the results have been extraordinary.  Indeed in just 20 months we have contracted for over 8.2 MW of residential solar power. That represents 1,100 homes and means in just 20 months we will reduce more than 14,000 metric tons of carbon emissions annually.

Further, 8.2 MW of installed solar power represents:

A reduction of 7,026,902 pounds of coal

A reduction of 15,214 barrels of oil

Translates to the removal of 1,377 cars off the road and the elimination of 15,576,30 miles driven

The equivalent of planting 167,745 trees

The equivalent of eliminating 171,123 incandescent light bulbs

As we conclude Phase 4 and begin Phase 5 of Solarize we are excited to have Bernie’s expertise and drive to help us continue to achieve strong measurable goals.

Bernie brings a strong background to the Solarize campaigns.  Prior to joining SmartPower Bernie was an Actuary for Travelers Insurance where he was the Chief Actuary for the International Department.  He retired from this position in 2012.

He graduated from Manhattan College in 1975 with degrees in Mathematics and Peace Studies.  His actuarial career made full use of both skill sets – and he continued to develop both disciplines. In 2007 he received a Master’s degree in Public Policy from Trinity College in Hartford.  He is working towards a Masters at RPI Hartford in the Environmental and Energy Engineering cohort.

Spring Program a Sunny Success; Recruiting for Fall Program Begins

July 10, 2014 – White River Junction, Vt. – One hundred twenty homeowners across the Upper Valley are going solar this season thanks to Solarize Upper Valley, an initiative led by Vital Communities to increase the rate of solar adoption in the region. These homeowners in Thetford and Strafford, Vt., and Cornish, Plainfield, and Lyme, N.H., are adding 638 new kilowatts of renewable energy capacity to the region – resulting in a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to taking 116 cars off the road. While the population of these five towns may be small, with only 9,406 residents combined, together they convinced 11 percent of households to get a solar site visit and three percent of households to go solar in just 15 weeks.

“The results of the first round of Solarize Upper Valley surpassed our expectations – not only in the number of households going solar, but also in the commitment of the community volunteers who made the program a success,” said Vital Communities Energy Program Manager Sarah Simonds. “We’re now recruiting communities to participate in new Solarize campaigns for the fall and are excited to help them achieve similar results.”

Solarize Upper Valley teams up community volunteers with competitively selected solar photovoltaic (PV) installers for 15 weeks of outreach around small-scale solar energy, offering competitive prices, accessible resources, and a simplified process for solar PV installations. “I know solar would have remained a ‘someday’ for us without all the work provided by [Solarize Upper Valley],” said one Solarize Cornish-Plainfield customer. “You made it possible for our someday to be today.”

Vital Communities is currently recruiting for the fall round of the Solarize Upper Valley program. Interested communities can find more information at vitalcommunities.org/solarize. The deadline to apply is July 21.

With support from the John Merck Fund and an individual donor to Vital Communities, Solarize Upper Valley is part of a larger network of Solarize programs aimed at catalyzing a very public and lasting wave of new residential solar installations across New England and beyond. Solarize programs have been successful in Massachusetts and Connecticut and are now taking root in other parts of the country.

“The exciting results from Vital Communities’ Solarize campaign continue to prove that the ‘Solarize’ community model is perhaps the most effective approach for expanding residential solar,” said Brian F. Keane, president of SmartPower, a leading partner in the broader effort to expand and share the Solarize model. “This model works – whether in Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, or anywhere across the nation.”

Vermont and New Hampshire Program a Sunny Success with 120 New Solar Homeowners

July 10, 2014 – White River Junction, Vt. – One hundred twenty homeowners across the rural Upper Valley region of Vermont and New Hampshire are going solar this season thanks to Solarize Upper Valley, an initiative led by local nonprofit organization Vital Communities to increase the rate of residential solar adoption in the Upper Valley. These results help prove the effectiveness of the Solarize model, which has been successfully deployed in Massachusetts and Connecticut in recent years.

Homeowners in Thetford and Strafford, Vt., and Cornish, Plainfield, and Lyme, N.H., are adding 638 new kilowatts of renewable energy capacity to the region – resulting in a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to taking 116 cars off the road. These five towns may be small, with only 9,406 residents combined, but together they convinced 11 percent of households to get a solar site visit and three percent of households to go solar in just 15 weeks.

“The exciting results from Vital Communities’ Solarize campaign continue to prove that the ‘Solarize’ community model is perhaps the most effective approach for expanding residential solar,” said Brian F. Keane, president of SmartPower, a leading organization in the broader effort to expand and share the Solarize model in New England and beyond. “This model works – whether in Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, or anywhere across the nation.”

With generous funding support from the John Merck Fund and an individual donor to Vital Communities, Solarize Upper Valley teams up community volunteers with competitively selected solar photovoltaic (PV) installers for 15 weeks of outreach around small-scale solar energy, offering competitive prices, accessible resources, and a simplified process for solar PV installations. “I know solar would have remained a ‘someday’ for us without all the work provided by [Solarize Upper Valley],” said one Solarize Cornish-Plainfield customer. “You made it possible for our someday to be today.”

“The results of the first round of Solarize Upper Valley surpassed our expectations – not only in the number of households going solar, but also in the commitment of the community volunteers who made the program a success,” said Vital Communities Energy Program Manager Sarah Simonds. “We’re now recruiting communities to participate in new Solarize campaigns for the fall and are excited to help them achieve similar results.”

Announce the Creation of "Food Network" for ReNewable Energy

April 1, 2014, Washington DC/Providence RI: SmartPower and ReNewable Now today announced a strategic media partnership that will leverage the new media channels offered through ReNewableNow.Biz with the clean energy and energy efficiency expertise of SmartPower. That partnership was in evidence at http://renewablenow.biz/smart-power.html. ReNewable Now and SmartPower share a common mission of increasing the use of clean energy and energy efficiency and reducing the impact of fossil fuels. SmartPower President Brian F. Keane and ReNewable Now President Peter Arpin were on hand to cement the media partnership.

A pivotal transition has taken place for residential solar power: its growth is now driven by middle-income homeowners concerned about keeping energy costs in check. That’s a landmark transition that opens the door to exponential growth. Now the key to success is marketing – not simply promoting a message but orchestrating on-the-ground campaigns community by community that literally bring the “solar store” into each neighborhood. The good news is that a proven method is already available.

This pivotal transition is due in part to falling prices. For the third year in a row, solar prices dropped. The installed price of solar photovoltaic (PV) power systems in the United States fell substantially in 2012 and the first half of 2013, according to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Installed prices for PV systems in 2012 fell by a range of roughly $0.30 per Watt (W) to $0.90/W, or 6 to 14 percent, from the prior year, depending on the size of the system – adding to the continuous string of significant, annual, price reductions for PV systems.

Presentations about solar energy have a definite rhythm. Initially, the audience is curious about renewable energy and midway through as they receive more information, the feeling turns to palpable excitement. But inevitably, by evening’s end, some of the excitement has dimmed. About 75% of people who want solar can’t get it, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. They live in multi-unit buildings, rent, or own homes surrounded by shade trees. They’re still enthusiastic about solar power, but are left wondering how they can benefit from it. Increasingly, states are utilizing community solar to solve this dilemma.

Through community solar, residents invest in a remote photovoltaic array the utility company installs, usually within their geographic region. The excess power the system generates is then credited on the utility bills of investors, a process known as virtual net metering. The investor saves money, and uses a clean and renewable energy source. Everyone wins.

Warwick Steps Up Next To Take The RI Energy Challenge! 

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - National Grid today named the town of North Smithfield “Rhode Island’s Energy Champion” after they became the first community to successfully complete the Rhode Island Energy Challenge: Find Your Four campaign, by getting the equivalent of 5% of households to sign onto the Challenge.  In addition to the designation as an “Energy Champion”, North Smithfield received a check for $7500 from National Grid to help the community invest in further energy savings.  .

“On behalf of North Smithfield, I am pleased to receive this honor and to accept this check from National Grid,” said Town Administration, Paulette Hamilton.  “I’m so proud of the residents of North Smithfield, who signed up for the Challenge, and took actions in their home to start saving energy.  We always knew we were Champions – and it’s really nice to have National Grid recognize our efforts.”

As a permanent recognition of their efforts, North Smithfield was presented with three street signs that proclaim them Rhode Island Energy Champions. The signs will be posted around the town on key roads heading into North Smithfield.

“Congratulations to the Town of North Smithfield for making this commitment to energy efficiency,” said Timothy F. Horan, president of National Grid in Rhode Island. “Their success is an example that we hope all Rhode Island communities will follow.”

In May 2013, National Grid, working with the non-profit organization SmartPower (www.smartpower.org), created the high visibility, community-based, on-the-ground campaign to increase energy efficiency. The Rhode Island Energy Challenge: Find Your Four! campaign is a dynamic program that has already engaged thousands of Rhode Islanders across the state and encouraged them to change their energy use behaviors by taking four energy actions in their homes.

National Grid Names North Smithfield Rhode Island’s “Energy Champion” /2

SmartPower has partnered with local municipalities, faith-based organizations, businesses and non-profit groups who committed to getting 5% -10% of their respective communities to participate, including North Smithfield, Cranston, Newport, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of RI, Citizens Bank, Arpin Group, People’s Power & Light, and RI Interfaith Power and Light.

Next up to engage in the Challenge is the City of Warwick.  On Tuesday, Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian announced that Warwick will ask its residents to commit to The Rhode Island Energy Challenge.

“We are completely committed to reducing energy across our city,” stated Mayor Avedisian.  “Wasting energy is not only bad for our economy, but it is hurting our environment.  There are simple steps that every resident can do to reduce their energy and the Rhode Island Energy Challenge: Find Your Four is the perfect way for Warwick to become true energy leaders.”

Also taking the Challenge on Tuesday was the Boys and Girls Club of Warwick.  Not only did the Boys and Girls Club host Tuesday announcement ceremony but also about a dozen boys and girls from the Club helped identify quick and easy energy saving steps that each of us can take right now. 

Brian Keane is a marketing guy. He understands how to sell things. And as president of SmartPower, a non-profit, solar marketing company, he knows how to sell residential solar to consumers.

When I spoke to him last week, he told me had had “cracked the code” on selling solar. He said he saw it as his job to sell solar power to “regular people” who will buy it, not as an expression of an identity or an ideology, but rather because it simply makes sense. Because, he said, “the fact that it's good for the environment is not a sufficient motivator for many people.”

Rhode Island Native To Expand “Rhode Island Energy Challenge”

January 27, 2014, Washington, DC: SmartPower, the nations’ leading non-profit organization that creates community campaigns for energy efficiency and renewable energy by engaging local partners from the municipal, business, and non-profit sectors today announced the promotion of Matthew Ray to Rhode Island State Director. Ray has been serving as Community Outreach Manager for the “Rhode Island Energy Challenge: Find Your Four”, (www.findyourfour.com) SmartPower’s residential energy efficiency campaign supported by National Grid. Mr. Ray has been instrumental in the success of the Rhode Island Energy Challenge, working closely with National Grid along with municipal leaders from North Smithfield, Cranston and Newport. Further, he has cultivated partnerships with business leaders from Arpin Van Lines, Blue Cross & Blue Shield-RI, Banneker Industries, and Citizens Bank, in addition to non-profit organizations that include People’s Power and Light and Rhode Island Interfaith Power & Light to promote the Challenge. Together these organizations have been encouraging their constituents  to find four energy actions in their homes to reduce household energy use.

With a little ingenuity and know-how, you can keep your energy costs down and stay warm all season long.

Read our report from Phase 1: Let’s Solarize: Solarize Connecticut Phase 1 Report [PDF] September 2013 Press Release: Report:  Innovative Program “Cracks The Code” For Residential Solar Power