Jim Elkind, chief executive officer of Hudson, Mass.,-based solar installation company New England Clean Energy, made the following statement today in conjunction with an Environment Massachusetts press conference in support of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan:
Thanks to Ben Hellerstein, Johanna Neuman and the able staff of Environment Massachusetts for inviting us today.
New England Clean Energy in Hudson was one of the first solar companies in the region, and we have grown with the industry, Two years ago, we were nine people in a garage. Today, we have more than 400 customers, and 23 employees who are among the 88,000 people working in the clean energy field in Massachusetts.
We are proud to have done our part in making solar mainstream in Massachusetts. Declining costs, new financing options and community solar systems have made solar accessible to all. People of all ages and incomes are saving and making hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year thanks to solar. Our customers have chosen to go solar to do their part to address climate change and to reduce and stabilize their energy spending.
What does any of this have to do with the Clean Power Plan? Solar can and should be one of the key ways Massachusetts and the country meet the EPA goals defined in the Clean Power Plan. According to Gallup, Americans recognize this. Regardless of political party, we overwhelmingly want more solar energy.
Over the decades, subsidies to fossil fuels have dwarfed support for renewable energy. So it is critical that we all encourage policies that support the evolution of renewable energy to level the playing field. In Massachusetts, the next governor needs to support renewable energy including solar in order to meet the goals of the Clean Power Plan, protect the health of our citizens, and bolster our local economy.
Solar energy benefits everyone, even those who don’t have panels on their roofs, in a number of ways:
- By lowering carbon emissions, solar improves air quality and reduces healthcare costs.
- It boosts the economy by creating local jobs and spurring small business growth.
- Solar and renewables stabilize regional energy costs by reducing dependence on energy priced in global markets.
Solar also helps us all in less obvious ways:
- It increases the utilities’ fuel diversity, which increases reliability.
- By putting power generation closer to load centers, it reduces or eliminates bottle-necks in the grid that contribute to higher costs.
- And it reduces or eliminates the utilities’ need to build expensive new infrastructure.
Thus, solar should help contain utility costs, which helps all ratepayers, even those without solar.
When you look at the wide array of benefits provided by solar, it’s pretty clear that solar can and should be a huge contributor to the Clean Power Plan, and to a cleaner Massachusetts. New England Clean Energy looks forward to being a part of this important initiative.
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