Here Comes the Sun

It may have been raining outside, but the smiles were beaming bright during a recent event at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum as Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Maeve Vallely Bartlett announced the participants in a pair of solar incentive programs - Solarize Mass and Mass Solar Connect.

Provincetown, Quincy, Plainfield, Ashfield and Buckland are joining the 46 communities statewide that have previously participated in Solarize Mass, a joint effort between MassCEC and the Department of Energy Resources to drive the adoption of solar electricity through grassroots education a tiered pricing structure, where the savings increase as more home and business owners in a community sign contracts. Now in its fifth year, Solarize Mass is responsible for more than 2,400 solar contracts across the Commonwealth.

Following on the success of Solarize Mass, MassCEC recently launched Mass Solar Connect, which looks to take the grassroots outreach and group-buying benefits to members of non-profit groups, with Mass Energy selected as the first group partner for the program.

Mass Energy is a non-profit organization that has 30 years of experience as an advocate for lower-cost, environmentally-sustainable energy. As part of their outreach proposal, Mass Energy will engage their 20,000 members to learn more about the process of going solar.

Over the next month, communities and Mass Energy will work with the MassCEC to competitively select installers, with the public launch of the programs occurring in early 2015. Visit their webpages to learn more about the Solarize Mass and Mass Solar Connect programs, or sign up for email updates.