Our roundup of the latest, greenest Wellesley, Mass., news:
Climate Action Plan set for release
Wellesley’s Climate Action Committee is readying to release its Climate Action Plan by the end of this month.
The plan to release the plan was discussed at the Committee’s most recent meeting on Jan. 14 (see Wellesley Media recording). A main report and appendix highlighting alternative scenarios for greenhouse gas emissions are slated for release, and will be available online.
A draft version of the plan was trotted out to the public and various town boards and committees in late 2021, following the kickoff of the plan creation process earlier in the year.
The plan builds on past and ongoing efforts to slash greenhouse gas emissions and lays out the town’s proposed path forward to achieving net-zero town-wide emissions by 2050. The plan features a multi-pronged approach to hitting that target that includes focuses on energy, buildings, mobility, waste and natural resources, all backed by governance. Transportation and buildings are the biggest greenhouse gas sources in town, and residential properties make up the biggest chunk of those buildings.
The Climate Action Committee is focusing in coming weeks on identifying high priority actions to focus on across the various sections of the plan.
More: Wellesley town buildings to keep getting greener
Big donation to fund Wellesley Police electric vehicle
A donor who wishes to remain anonymous to the public but is known to support police departments across the country, has given $150K to the Wellesley Police Department to use at its discretion.
Chief Jack Pilecki says the department will use a chunk of the gift to buy an electric vehicle, and will use other parts of the gift to support its community policing training and initiatives.
Pilecki told the Select Board, which on Monday approved the gifts, “You folks know I’m very green. I really want the Wellesley Police Department to be a leader among other police departments in our Commonwealth when it comes to paving the way toward a cleaner environment.”
The chief has reached out to the Wellesley Municipal Light Plant about getting a charging station at the department, but also to discuss a longer-term plan that could support bigger electric vehicles designed for longer shifts.
A separate $10K gift will go toward supporting Winnie, the well-heeled Wellesley Police community resource dog that has assisted in situations such as comforting kids getting COVID-19 shots. The same donor enabled the department to buy the golden retriever from a breeder in the first place.
NRC has a lot to say about track & field lights
The Wellesley Natural Resources Commission devoted its Jan. 20 meeting to discussing the Wellesley Public Schools’ proposal to erect lights at the high school track and field. The discussion, which lasted more than three hours (Wellesley Media recording embedded below), hit on the significance of the impact such a change in use to the parkland would have upon the environment, neighbors, and users.
Whether or not to install lights at the field has been a long-running discussion in town, with those in favor arguing it would be a great community-builder and support student-athletes, and those against concerned about the negative impact on wildlife and neighbors. We recently covered the topic when discussed at Select Board and NRC meetings earlier this month.
In wrapping up the discussion on Jan. 20, NRC Chair Raina McManus said “I don’t think anybody wants to prolong this process, but it is a process and we are making progress. I think tonight’s discussion drilled down on a lot of issues here and we’ve seen solutions to some of them.”
Concerning the town of Wellesley’s climate action plan: There is a lot of emphasis on converting motor vehicles to all-electric and to convert a lot of building heating to electric hear pumps. That is a Lot of electricity. Currently, the peak power used by Wellesley is 66 MegaWatts. If that needs to be increased by 50%, then that will require the installation of about 550,000 solar panels that are each one square meter in area, or enough solar panels to fill 73 full-size soccer fields. Yet, almost every street, home and building in Wellesley has access to a natural gas pipeline. How about working with National Grid that provides Wellesley with methane gas to convert from 100% new methane to 10% new methane, 50% captured from the environment methane and 40% hydrogen that is generated remotely? Then we will not need to convert a lot of buildings and homes to electric heat pumps and we can still be well on our way to net-zero by 2035. We have to consider not only reducing the the generation of pollution, but where we (Wellesley Municipal Light Plant) will get all of the required new electricity.
The Wellesley MLP’s power purchases are already about 50% emission free and the growing. Almost all of the renewable energy is being generated at utility-sized installations outside of Wellesley but in New England.
To successfully address decarbonization, there are few “either/or” choices and no “silver bullets”. Rather, we need to take a portfolio approach to our actions, stay open minded to all opportunities and continuously adjust our priorities as we see what works and what doesn’t and as opportunities shift.
Beneficial electrification through such things as EVs and heat pumps and installation of local solar and storage are just a few of the many decarbonization approaches that we are pursuing.
Ellen Korpi, Chair Municipal Light Board