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Canton pushing for residential and commercial solar power installations

Posted 4/23/15

By CRAIG FREILICH CANTON – Canton and other North Country communities will be leading what they hope will become a surge in solar energy installations completed by this fall. “Solarize the …

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Canton pushing for residential and commercial solar power installations

Posted

By CRAIG FREILICH

CANTON – Canton and other North Country communities will be leading what they hope will become a surge in solar energy installations completed by this fall.

“Solarize the Village of Canton,” supported by a $5,000 grant from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority announced last week, will spread the word about the value in solar installations and persuade people to take advantage of a 20 percent discount on the cost of an installation.

“It will start with an awareness campaign about how people can increase energy efficiency by going solar, including businesses,” said Mayor Mary Ann Ashley. “The village board is enthused. We have to look at these measures for our future.”

The campaign will be conducted by the energy subcommittee of Canton’s Sustainability Committee, which came out of discussions in an economic development steering committee.

“It’s largely an education outreach,” said Louise Gava of the Sustainability Committee’s energy subcommittee.

The aims are to inform anyone who is interested in solar energy to consider joining in an “aggregated purchase” of installations that will result in cost savings. In addition to the tax breaks and other incentives offered by New York and the federal government for solar installations, an additional 20 percent savings will be realized through this program.

St. Lawrence University, SUNY Canton and United Helpers are part of the core group working on the campaign, which will involve pamphlets and high school students going door to door.

The umbrella group working with Canton, Akwesasne and some Franklin County communities in coordinating the campaign is the Adirondack North Country Association, which brought the program to village. Ashley said village government supports the campaign, but they don’t have the staff to administer it, so they have agreed that ANCA will oversee the plan.

“NYSERDA decided to give incentive dollars for communities to do a ‘solarize’ campaign,” said Jen Perry of ANCA.

“Canton leapt at the opportunity. They’ll run the campaign and I’ll run between the community and NYSERDA,” Perry said.

“They are amazing. They have talent, interest and enthusiasm to burn,” she said.

“There are 15 people on the on the Sustainability Committee, and solar power is near and dear to their hearts,” Mayor Ashley said.

Perry said Canton’s application for the $5,000 campaign funds was approved a month ago and the effort was launched.

“The money can be used for flyers, food for a meeting, web stuff, to offset expenses,” she said.

Among the imminent steps is selecting up to three certified installers by the end of May for the work, Perry said. The installations should start toward the end of summer and continue into early fall.