Now Comes The Hard Part: Energy Efficiency And Electrification
Saturday, April 15, 4:00PM: Now Comes The Hard Part: Energy Efficiency And Electrification
The Island has made considerable progress in addressing the implications of our changing climate. All six towns are now Green Communities, and in 2020 the towns adopted the 100% Renewable Martha’s Vineyard goals of eliminating as far as possible the use of fossil fuels by 2040 and filling our energy needs with renewable energy – “greening the grid”.
This talk will outline what comes next – and what comes next represents significant challenges for our Island community. Our primary focus needs to be transforming our energy system and making it significantly more resilient in the face of the increasingly severe weather events expected as a result of climate change. At the town level, improving the energy efficiency and electrifying the HVAC systems of our town buildings, upgrading building codes, and moving to new technologies to ensure the operation of critical services in the case of moderate and severe power outages needs to be a primary focus. This is also true for individual homeowners and renters as well as businesses. The energy transformation required will not happen overnight, but we need to start now if we are to meet our 2040 goals!
The talk will conclude with a question-and-answer session with representatives from Vineyard Power focused on signing up individuals for a FREE home energy assessment and on answering questionson the practical issues associated with solar arrays, batteries, heat pumps, and electric vehicles.
Rob Hannemann is a member of Chilmark’s Finance Advisory Committee and chairs the Town Energy Committee and the Island-wide Vineyard Sustainable Energy Committee. He taught climate change and sustainable energy courses at Tufts University before becoming a full-time resident of Chilmark.
In-person at the Chilmark Library. Email tthorpe@clamsnet.org for more information.
Free. Sponsored by the Friends of the Chilmark Library. 508-645-3360.