The commitment to 100% renewable energy is being made by cities, states and even countries – New York City, Hawaii, Ireland. But very few places have gotten close, and they tend to be unique – Aspen, Colorado, a conversion done by the nearby Department of Energy; Greensboro, Kansas, which was leveled by a tornado and rebuilt green; Columbia, Maryland, a planned community; and Block Island, MA. We believe it’s time for the same planning and focus to be tapped in ordinary communities – and we’ve begun in Marbletown NY with dynamic partners to design the methods.

With a team of actuaries from Connecticut, we’ve developed an approach to estimating an entire community’s energy use – homes, business and institutions, industry, government, and transportation. That benchmark guides the community’s exploration of ways to reduce demand through efficiency – including the efficiency that is gained by switching to electric heating, cooling and transportation.  The replacements are found in this graph.

We help with this assessment, and then with identifying sites where renewable energy can be generated, in and around the community. We think about making the system resilient by distributing the energy sources widely and by considering the options for micro-grids that can stay on when the main power goes out. Beyond the technical assessment, what we do is identify options for the community to evaluate

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View the Community Presentation on initial results:

Forging a Pathway to a 100% Renewable Energy Future: a Marbletown NY Case Study

Co-created by Marbletown Environmental Conservation Commission, Sustainable Hudson Valley and PACE 100% CT

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Actor and Marbletown resident Tim Guinee opens with Climate Reality mini-presentation

100% Renewables Community Forum Marbletown NY 2018