Bright Ideas in Bristol & Thomaston

Kevin Fuller, Chairman City of Bristol, Mayor Ken Cockayne, Bristol and Sen. Jason Welch at the Bright Idea Ceremony in Hartford.

Hartford, CT – State Senator Jason Welch (R-Bristol) announced Bristol and Thomaston were honored on Monday for being two of the 23 cities around Connecticut to have collectively saved more than 277 million kilowatt-hours and 2.8 million cubic feet of carbon through their energy efficiency efforts.

“Any time towns and cities can reduce energy consumption and buy electricity in a green way we all win,” said Sen. Welch.

The Clean Energy Communities (CEC) program recognized Bristol and Thomaston for taking a pledge to reduce municipal; building energy consumption by 20 percent by 2018 and to voluntarily purchase 20 percent of its municipal electric needs from renewable sources by 2018.

In turn communities can earn energy efficiency points by participating in the Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund programs. The points go toward an overall score and can result in a Bright Idea Grant. The grants range from $1,000 to $15,000 and can be used toward a community-selected energy-saving project.

Bristol received a $15,000 Bright Idea Grant for:

• participation in “lead by example” with performance contracting
• conducting a town wide campaign to promote residential programs (10% or more than 2,600 homes participated)
• 229 business & municipal energy-savings projects were completed

In Bristol’s case they were applauded for not generating more than 12,000 tons of CO2 which is equivalent to taking more than 2,000 cars off the road for one year and saving more than 23,000,000 kwh in energy since January of 2010.

In Thomaston the town was awarded a $5,000 Bright Idea Grant for:

• 9% of the town (304 homes) participated in residential programs
• installing geothermal wells at town hall to save energy
• 48 business & municipal energy-saving projects were completed
• conducting performance contracting upgrades at 10 town and board of education buildings

Thus Thomaston saved more than 3,000,000 Kwh of energy and did not generate nearly 2,000 tons of CO2 which is equivalent to taking 335 cars off the road for one year.

“Those are significant changes in the way these two communities do business and leadership should be commended,” added Sen. Welch.

Overall the 23 communities honored by the CEC program saved enough energy to equal the amount of electricity that 33,000 homes would typically consume in one year and result in avoided emissions of approximately 152,500 tons of CO2, which is the equivalent of taking more than 26,000 cars off the road for a year.