CHARLESTOWN — The energy used to run the building that houses town offices on Main Street is now being totally generated by solar power.
The cost of a 23-kilowatt array installed on top of the town office building, about $60,000, was covered by a state municipal solar grant, according to a Thursday news release from Clean Energy New Hampshire, or CENH. The unit is expected to produce more than enough energy to power the building.
CENH is a Concord-based nonprofit that advocates for clean energy across New Hampshire. The group helped Charlestown staff apply for the solar grant.
Bow, N.H.-based Granite State Solar installed the array in August and it has been providing energy for the town office building ever since, Doug Cogan, Sullivan County Energy Circuit Rider for CENH, said. The Circuit Rider program offers free technical assistance for municipalities, small businesses and farms working on clean energy projects.
In addition to eliminating the cost of the town office’s electric bill — about $4,300 in 2023 — the array will produce extra electricity that the town plans to sell to Liberty Utilities.
New Hampshire’s municipal solar grant program was launched in 2023 when the state received a $1.6 million federal grant. The New Hampshire Department of Energy announced 16 grant recipients, including Charlestown, in the first round of awards last fall.
Elsewhere in the Upper Valley, the city of Lebanon was the recipient of a $107,000 grant to install a solar array on the roof of the new downtown fire station currently under construction.
Since announcing the recipients last fall, the state agency had to hire staff to help implement the grants which caused delays for the approved projects, Cogan said.
Charlestown was able to move more quickly than many other towns because residents had approved the cost of the array as part of the town budget in 2024. Other communities had to wait until this March for voters’ approval.
