Weymouth Awarded Nearly $200,000 for Clean Energy Updates through State’s Green Communities Program

The Department of Energy Resources (DOER) awarded Weymouth a Green Communities 2020 Competitive Grant Award. This is the Town’s fifth grant award since being designated a Green Community in 2015. Weymouth was awarded $194,661 in competitive grant funding and was one of 103 communities to receive funds for projects. 

“The Green Communities grant award is demonstrative of the Town’s efforts to continuing working to make environmentally sound infrastructure improvements and upgrades on our facilities so that we can utilize cleaner, more resilient energy sources that will also save taxpayers money”, said Mayor Hedlund. 

“The weatherization of our buildings, LED lighting installations, and transformer replacements will translate into monthly savings on our bills, equating to about $24,000 annually,” Mayor Hedlund continued. “I want to thank DOER and the Baker-Polito Administration for supporting this program which enables Weymouth to fund these projects year after year.”

Weymouth’s 2020 award will fund LED lighting in the High School and Adams Middle School, weatherization of the Pingree and Murphy Primary Schools, and transformer replacements at the High School. The Town also received $10,000 in administrative assistance to offset program oversight costs for staff which will alleviate pressure on the operating budget to fund this program during the CVOID-19 pandemic.   

In addition to the total projected annual costs savings of $23,882, annual electricity savings will be 126,290 kWh. The projects will result in: the replacement of over 1200 lighting fixtures; weatherization of doors, windows, roof walls, rooftop units, and other parts of municipal facility infrastructure; and the installation of a new, high efficiency transformer.

Since being designated a Green Community in 2015, Weymouth has received nearly $1.2M in grants through the program. Weymouth is one of 271 municipalities participating in the Green Communities program, which represents over 77% of the Commonwealth. Previous awards totaled $277,635 in FY17, $250,000 in FY18, $250,000 in FY19, and $225,373 in FY20. These grants have funded over 30 local energy efficiency projects in municipal facilities, resulting in thousands of dollars in energy savings per year and hundreds of thousands of kilowatt-hour and fuel energy savings annually.

Previous projects the Town has funded include: