Members of the Community Energy team recently attended a ribbon cutting ceremony to unveil a solar photovoltaic (PV) system at The Goodwin Memorial Branch of the Hartford Public Library in Hartford, Connecticut.   The 8-kW solar system is the first installation of the 10 kW the City has earned through the Connecticut Clean Energy Communities program and is valued at approximately $80,000.

This installation is the result of the collaborative efforts of numerous supporters of clean energy in Hartford and one of many steps being taken to green the city.  Hartford already has the lowest electricity usage per household of any large city in New England and it was the first municipality in Connecticut to meet its goal of purchasing 20 percent clean energy for its municipal facilities by 2010 – a year ahead of schedule. 

Two Community Energy customers in particular helped boost the number of kilowatts that Hartford has earned: financial services leader ING and the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).   ING has purchased wind energy credits equal to 100 percent of ING’s electricity usage at the company’s U.S. locations.  ING also made a clean energy purchase through the CTCleanEnergyOptions program earning Hartford 1 kW of solar.  The other major clean energy supporter in Hartford has been the DEP, which purchased 7,300,000 kilowatt hours of clean energy through the CTCleanEnergyOptions program, which earned Hartford 7 kW of solar PV.  Numerous other residential and business customers enrolled in the CTCleanEnergyOptions program helped the city earn an additional 2 kW of solar.

In an effort to expand the reach of the clean energy message in Hartford, Community Energy has teamed up with members of the City of Hartford Advisory Commission on the Environment and the Hartford Green Team and launched an outreach campaign in Hartford’s latino community to promote the importance of supporting clean energy.  Declaring “energia ecologica para todos”, this campiagn was launched at the recent Latino Expo in Hartford and will be a centerpiece at a Green Fair in Hartford produced by Telemundo this fall.