Bethany wins!
It's official. Bethany won the clean energy competition with Cheshire. The competition was a race to see which town could have "3% of households" sign up for clean energy. And per the official clean energy numbers:
Bethany is at 6.56% (115 households)
Cheshire is at 1.84% (165 households)
So Bethany won. Congratulations!
Now I'll have to touch base with everyone and wrap up this little adventure. Although... I've already been asked to investigate competitions with both Meriden & Southington. Hmmm... we'll see. We're about to kick off the town budget process... and that's going to be a lot of meetings over the next couple of months. So I'm pretty busy for a while.
Anyway, I believe we now owe Bethany 10 one-day passes to the town pool. And that's fine with me. My main goal with this competition was to just increase public awareness. And I know for a fact that it worked. When I was knocking on doors in Prospect, I had one couple tell me that they signed up as a result of an article in the WRA about this competition. So... mission accomplished!
Tim White
Town Council, Energy Commission liaison
11 comments:
This is a dumb big-government program subsidezed by taxes, taxes, taxes. Look at the true cost and you will see that the payback on the panels takes 50 years. UI and CL7P are the only true benficiaries
This is about a competition between Bethany & Cheshire. The competition relates to a program run by Smartpower and is intended to increase public awareness of the Smartpower program. That program is largely paid for by me and other rate payers who choose to participate in the Smartpower program by paying a premium on our electric bills.
Smartpower is partly funded by CT Clean Energy Fund. I believe CCEF sponsors the 50yr payback PVs.
If you're saying the program with a 50 yr payback is dumb, I won't disagree. Actually, I think Barnard is closer to 60 years. Anyway, that money could've been invested in other energy-efficiency or clean energy projects with shorter paybacks.
But if you're saying this competition is dumb, then I disagree. I've always been very frank in saying that this was about increasing public awareness and that it comes at a cost... but a cost that I think is worthwhile.
"That program is largely paid for by me and other rate payers who choose to participate in the Smartpower program by paying a premium on our electric bills.' is a false statement; the program is primarily finded by the taxpayer at large; your supposed to be an auditor: follow the money - the "competition" is just about where the money os funneled!!!!
11:47... I've spent dozens of hours trying to understand the $0.011kWh premium. If you understand it better than I do, would you be willing to sit down with me and explain it?
As for "the 'competition' is just about where the money os funneled!!!" That comment is not true. Again though, feel free to call me, I'd be happy to explain the competition to you.
203-439-4394
The very small premium you pay above norwmal pays for the premium cost of the alternative energy generation that the power company buys and theoretically delivers to your home. That's fully understandable as alternative energy generation does come at a premium.
However, the premium you pay has little to do with the PV panels that go to your town based on the contest rules. The panels are basically funded by the state of CT general fund - and very little by the utility companies - when you follow the money. This is just more convoluted gimmicky government designed to be confusing so that everyone thinks it's a deal.
and PS: it is a deal for your town because the town gets the panels for nothing!!!!but it's still bad government when you look at the big picture.
2:15...
Alt electricity normally comes at a premium, but not always. Austin TX recently started selling it for less than regular electric. The key is that they had crossed the "critical mass" required to make alt electric less expensive. However, in CT, we have not yet achieved the critical mass. Therefore, CT does come at a premium still. But in general, I agree with you that clean electric comes at a cost.
As for the competition... Bethany vs. Cheshire has nothing to do with PVs. That is something that is sponsored by Smartpower, and basically by ratepayers.
As for the towns benefitting at the cost of the state... yup. In general, I agree. But when it comes to dealing with CTs energy (both electric & fuel) problems, I do believe that gov't has a role in addressing those problems.
You are absolutley wrong that ratepayers pay for the PV cells becasue it is the taxpayers doing that. And bringing Texas in just diverts attention from the issue of who pays!!!
I believe we can break PVs down to two categories:
1) PVs received by towns that sign up for Clean Energy and have 100 households also sign up.
2) PVs received by towns through means other than that mentioned above.
The first is sponsored by Smartpower. Smartpower is funded by a number of sources, including CCEF. I believe they receive no funding directly from the state gov't. (At least their most recent financials don't mention any direct state funding.)
The second is sponsored by... I'm not sure... either CCEF or other gov't programs.
The smartpower PVs may have a relatively small amount of tax dollars.
The other PVs may or may not get subsidized by tax dollars. I haven't investigated.
The Bethany/Cheshire competition has little to do with all the various gov't programs that subsidize things like PVs.
If I'm wrong, please tell me where the tax dollars for Smartpower are coming from. I've investigated this at great length and just don't see what you're talking about. I don't know though... I may very well be wrong, but until you explain it... I just don't know.
Keep drinking the Kool-Aid; the notion that CCEF is not funded by the govt and would give away PV's for free is just plain ludicrous!!!
anon, I will neither agree nor disagree with you unless you substantiate your case.
Feel free to call me anytime (439-4394) to discuss. But typing takes too long for this type of conversation.
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