Solarize Monadnock campaign seeks to add 25 homes with solar

Peterborough will be one of the towns targeted in a campaign to encourage homeowners to invest in solar panels over the course of this year.

During a Peterborough Select Board meeting Tuesday Dori Drachman spoke to the board about an upcoming Solarize Monadnock Campaign, which will kick off in March.

The point of the campaign, Drachman said “is to make sure we get as much solar in our community as quickly as we can.”

Solarize Monadnock will pair with a local installer, Drachman said, to give a potential discount to those willing to install solar on their homes to provide electricity. Solarize Monadnock will coordinate a team of volunteer to help educate the public on the process of purchasing solar and helping them through the process.

The idea, Drachman said, is to take advantage of the fact that this year is the last year homeowners who install solar panels can take advantage of a 30 percent tax credit of the price of their solar installation. Next year, that tax credit will drop to 26 percent.

The goal, Drachman said, is to install 25 or more solar systems in Peterborough before December of 2019. Currently, Peterborough has 44 homes with solar panels.

“That would increase that by more than 50 percent in one year,” Drachman said.

The Select Board was supportive of the idea, with Select Board Chair Barbara Miller asking if there would be enough time to do more than the projected 25 installs, if Solarize Monadnock exceeded their goal.

Drachman explained that would be a matter of negotiation with the chosen installer. 

Drachman said representatives from energy committees or residents from Rindge, Hancock, Fitzwilliam and Peterborough are involved with the Solarize Monadnock project, as well as the Monadnock Energy Hub.