Who is a member?
Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
The Northampton Housing Authority recently established a deal projected to save $1.3 million in energy costs over the next 20 years.
Under the arrangement, the housing authority will obtain solar energy from a large installation in Monson that is expected to begin generating electricity later this year.
There is no upfront cost to the housing authority, according to Northampton Housing Authority Director Jon Hite. The housing authority will receive net-metering credits of $50,000 a year to begin with. In the final year of the 20-year contract, the annual savings could be as much as $150,000, based on projections of energy costs over the next 20 years.
“We’re buying at a fixed rate,” Hite noted.
He credited PowerOptions, a Boston-based nonprofit energy consortium, for enabling the deal. While 75 percent of the savings will go to the Department of Housing and Community Development, the remaining 25 percent will be retained by the housing authority.
Hite said establishing the contract was relatively straightforward.
“The beauty of these arrangements,” he said, “are in their simplicity: Keep the local government entity from having to do a lot of work, and keep the savings attractive.
“It’s a good deal all around,” he added. “It’s good for mother earth. It’s good for the housing authority. And it’s good for taxpayers.”
The Department of Housing and Community Development has worked on various initiatives to reduce energy and water consumption among the state’s 240 local housing authorities, according to Paul McPartland, the department’s asset management coordinator.
“Since the net-metering deals are typically very long-term contracts that may impact the operating subsidies we pay to many housing authorities, we want to ensure that they enter into contracts that adequately protect their – and the Commonwealth’s – long-term financial interests,” McPartland said in an email.
Other housing authorities taking advantage of net-metering credits include Leominster, Winchendon and Gardner, according to Brian Tracey, PowerOptions’ director of research and program development.