White River Junction — Hartford-area residents will soon have two opportunities to get up close and personal with the technology fueling the solar power boom — a solar-themed event, and White River Junction’s first electric car charger.

“I’ve always wanted to be able to touch and see and understand how solar energy works,” said Tad Nunez, director of Hartford Parks and Recreation. “But I’m not going to go up to a homeowner and say, ‘Can I get on top of your house and see what’s going on?’ ”

With this in mind, Nunez started a conversation with the area’s solar community, the end result of which is a Solar Show and Tell, hosted by Parks and Recreation and scheduled for Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Wendell A. Barwood Arena.

During the event, Nunez said, attendees will be able to get their hands on photovoltaic panels, micro-inverters, solar cells, trackers and other equipment typically used to help a residential homeowner hook into the power grid.

Nunez said the event is keeping with a continuous push in Hartford to reduce energy costs by exploring alternative energy sources.

The arena, he said, is one of several municipal buildings that might see its electric bills reduced by a 750-kilowatt solar array proposed for the town’s capped and closed landfill area on Route 5.

“Your streetlights are now LED,” Nunez said. “Any project we do in the Maxfield Sports Complex is LED. It’s not always solar, but using less energy.”

The federal Energy Information Administration says that nearly a quarter of all Vermont’s energy came from renewable resources in 2014, but that solar accounted for only 0.5 percent of the state’s net electricity generation. 

Hartford Selectman Alan Johnson said another bit of green energy that people don’t have enough familiarity with is electric vehicles — for some residents, that could change soon, because the town recently received a grant to support the installation of a solar-powered electric car charger for downtown White River Junction.

The $12,500 grant was awarded by Green Mountain Power, which selected Hartford and three other communities from a pool of nine applicants, according to GMP spokeswoman Dorothy Schnure.

Hartford won the competitive grant because its proposed charging location, the parking lot near the former American Legion building in downtown White River Junction, has enough traffic to support the need, and also has activities that people can do while their cars are charging up.

“We are really excited to be helping Hartford with a charging station powered by the sun, so Vermonters can save money and reduce fossil fuel use,” said Schnure.

The grant requires the installation of solar panels that more than offset the charger’s expected usage, but the solar panels won’t necessarily be located on the car-charging site, according to Johnson.

Johnson drives a 2013 Nissan Leaf S, an electric car that he says is mostly useful for trips around town, because of its limited range.

Johnson said having a charger in the downtown area could help raise the visibility of electric cars in general. He said people often have misconceptions that the charging process, particularly in wet weather, carries with it a risk of electric shock.

“You can see the mechanics of it,” he said. “Once you see them, you realize how safe it is.”

Johnson said the timeline to build the charging station has not yet been determined.

In all, GMP has helped install 30 charging stations, most of them with two chargers, in locations throughout Vermont. 

Those efforts have bolstered a statewide push for more alternative energy, and more electric vehicles.

Gov. Peter Shumlin partnered with Quebec officials to establish a charging station corridor along Interstate 89 and Interstate 91 in 2013; in January, Shumlin doubled down on a commitment to get 90 percent of the state’s energy from renewable resources by 2050 and reaffirmed a law that requires a benchmark of 25 percent renewable energy by 2025. 

According to the advocacy group Drive Electric Vermont, there were more than 1,000 electric vehicles in the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles registration database as of October, an increase of 31 percent over the previous year. 

Other charging stations in Hartford are located at the Quechee Mall on Route 4 and at the Hampton Inn on Ballardvale Drive. Lebanon has at least seven charging stations; Hanover has one at the Hanover Garage on Lebanon Street; and Norwich has one at King Arthur Flour on Route 5. 

Matt Hongoltz-Hetling can be reached at mhonghet@vnews.com or 603-727-3211.