Tag: Sam Nighman

  • Newton begins three solar projects as part of carbon neutral goal

    Newton will install solar panels on three additional City buildings, bringing its total solar projects to 27, as part of an effort to make the city carbon neutral by 2050.

    The new rooftop installations at Peirce Elementary School, Lincoln-Eliot Elementary School, and the Cooper Center for Active Living will contribute to the $1 million-plus annual solar savings by the City and schools, according to an article in the City’s newsletter written by Sam Nighman, the City’s Co-director of Climate and Sustainability, and Climate Action Coordinator Caroline Weiss.

    The solar projects at both schools are in early stages of construction, while the installation at the Cooper Center will begin after construction is finished in December, according to Nighman. The most recently completed solar project, on the roof of Wiliams Elementary School, began operation in May.

    “For us, it’s been driven primarily by the environmental benefits,” Nighman said. “We have a commitment to, by 2050, having the whole city be carbon neutral.” 

    City officials say the solar expansion demonstrates Newton’s clean energy commitment to residents and businesses. Weiss said solar panels installed on City buildings “are a great way to lead by example and show residents what’s possible in terms of solar arrays. They see it all around the city. Maybe that can be an inspiration to install in their own homes or businesses, too.”

    Homeowners who make clean-energy improvements, including solar, are eligible for a 30% federal tax credit, which expires December 31. Another incentive is the newest version of the Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target program, which provides payments to homeowners for every kWh of energy produced by their solar system. The state also deducts 15% from income taxes, up to a maximum of $1,000, for the cost of renewable energy installations.

    Weiss said that although the City isn’t able to provide additional incentives in place of the expiring federal credit, officials are working to educate residents on existing incentives to encourage solar installations. However, some state lawmakers seem open to the idea. In a Senate hearing on climate change and global warming last week, Elizabeth Mahony, the commissioner of the Department of Energy Resources, said policy makers should consider additional environment-friendly incentives.

    “We have to consider how it impacts the state budget,” she said, “but again, I’ll keep saying it, these are projects that help all of us.”

    Mahony also said that additional incentives could come through changes to the SMART structure in 2026.

    “I have always tended to assume that tax credits can be difficult,” she said, “so we’re trying to address it through what we have at our control, which is these incentive levels.”

    Another speaker during the hearing, Hannah Birnbaum, the chief of advocacy for Permit Power — an organization that aspires to lower solar prices by streamlining the process — suggested ways to reduce the soft costs of solar (expenses other than materials and labor).

    Birnbaum said smart permitting, which issues instant permits for solar panels on homes, could shave $5,500 off the cost of a typical installation. Matthew McAllister, CEO of SolarAPP+, which also aims to lower the soft costs of solar installations, advocated for remote inspections of solar panel installations in homes, which would trim the cost of solar panels for homeowners. 

    He said the average residential solar and battery system costs $35,000 in the United States, while the same system would cost $12,000 in the UK, Australia, or Germany. A large reason for the difference is the soft costs, which McAllister said could be mitigated through modern processes.

    Bob Persons is an energy coach in Newton, someone who can answer homeowner questions about climate and energy. He said the City can do more to promote the use of solar and inspire interest in renewable energy. Fewer than half of the questions he receives are about solar.  

    Persons said the work of Green Newton, an organization focused on improving the environment and the way resources are used in Newton, deserves more attention.

    “Newton’s a pretty rich community, and one way to start making things happen is for people who can afford it to get it started,” Persons said. “And, of course, the Trump administration is cancelling all the incentives and everything that people would like to use, but there are still people interested in doing their part to help save the planet.”

  • Ain’t No Sunshine: Trump’s tariffs on steel, aluminum stall Newton’s solar plan

    Construction of a solar canopy in the Memorial Spaulding Elementary School parking lot has been halted after Trump’s tariffs caused steel prices to soar.

    The city has made a consistent effort to stay at the forefront of the Commonwealth’s sustainability efforts, with initiatives like the Climate Action Plan, a five-year timeline to introduce sustainable practices into the city, and Newton Power Choice, a city-funded program that enables citizens to easily invest in clean energy.

    As of 2022, the city had 18 solar projects online, which generate 5 million kW/hr a year, equal to 25% of the city’s total electricity use. Now, it has one additional project completed, two more under construction and six planned.

    Since 2022, Newton has also planned to install solar canopies at the Education Center, the Wheeler and Meadowbrook Road corner parking lot, and Memorial Spaulding Elementary School. However, the construction at Memorial Spaulding suddenly shut down when the developer was looking to do the last round of purchasing, specifically for steel.

    As of June 4, Trump raised the tariffs on steel and aluminum from 25% to 50%, causing steel prices to climb from $700 to $900 per ton.

    “With recent uncertainty around tariffs and the tariffs that were already in place on steel coming in,” said Sam Nighman, Newton’s co-director of sustainability. “The project was no longer financially viable for them.”

    Construction had not started, but the project was in the final planning stages.

    “With canopies, those end up involving a lot more steel compared to, like, your overall roof system or a ground mount system,” Nighman said.

    There is still hope that the project will resume at Memorial Spaulding. There are no barriers besides tariffs preventing construction.

    “I think everyone agrees it would be a good location for a solar canopy,” Nighman said. “If we can, in the future, find a way for that to work financially. We’ll pick that up and try to make that happen then.”

    The remaining canopies are larger and are predicted to produce more energy, which makes them more financially viable. As of now, construction for these areas is still planned for the summer, but Newton is not certain of the exact outcome for the other canopy projects.

    “Ones where we are looking at canopies, this could be impacted,” Nighman said.

    The solar projects are conducted under power purchase agreements with Ameresco, a New England-based solar developer, which means the company owns and maintains the projects and the city leases the space to them, Nighman said. Ameresco pays for the panels, the installation and all the upfront costs. The city buys the electricity produced by these panels.

    The solar projects allow Newton to mitigate some effects of climate change and save money on energy because solar is less expensive than other energy sources.

    “So I think if we look at our overall portfolio, the amount annually that we save is somewhere around $1 million in electricity costs from all of our solar projects,” Nighman said.

    The plan includes solar installation on municipal property as a big part of their plan to mitigate climate change.

    The issue is seen not only in Newton but in construction projects across the country. Even the talk about tariffs before they were implemented was enough to disrupt the supply chain that was still reeling from the pandemic.

    “There’s been a lot of disruptions,” said Gilbert Michaud, an assistant professor at the School of Environmental Sustainability at Loyola University Chicago and the policy division chair at the American Solar Energy Society. “It’s definitely not just in Massachusetts or New England or a regional thing, like it’s all across the country.”

    A report published in 2021 by the Newton Citizens Commission on Energy, a citizen-run group that creates renewable energy policy, found that residential homes and cars were responsible for 61% of the greenhouse gas emissions created in Newton. Commercial properties accounted for 37% and municipal uses 2%.

    Philip Hanser, the commission’s chair, said the group will set its sights on finding ways to encourage more solar adoption in residential areas.  

    “I think our next sector to tackle is residential homes and buildings, particularly less than 20,000 square feet, because they represent over a third of the emissions in the city,” Hanser said. “That’s the kind of next big frontier, and that’s where things need to be concentrated.”

    The biggest hurdle is motivating more of Newton’s 31,730 households to participate.

    “There are state and national mandates to help do that, but a lot of it is getting the word out and convincing people it’s a good idea,” said Michael Gevelber, a member of Newton’s Energy Commission since 2012 and an associate engineering research professor at Boston University.

    “How do you get more of them to put solar panels up, buy electric cars, put in heat pumps to provide heat during the winter?” Gevelber said. “That’s the question we’re contemplating, and that’s what goes into the climate action plan.”

    The same 2021 report revealed that Newton was not on track to reach any of its 2025 goals regarding EV ownership, residential heating emissions, commercial heating emissions, and heat pump installation.

    “Five years later, you measure, ‘Where are we?’” Gevelber said. “We barely scratched the surface, unfortunately.”

    To combat this issue, the commission urges the government to educate residents about their energy consumption.

    “The commission right now is putting forward that the city needs to think about putting into place an ordinance for homes to know what their energy use intensity is, and to use that data in the long run to develop decarbonization plans for everybody’s homes,” Hanser said. “And part of the decarbonization plans could be to supplement the energy sources with solar panels.”