The first pilot to impress Cape Cod and Martha’s vineyard homes is expected to close construction in the coming weeks. And it could provide a blueprint for decarbonizing low- and moderate-income households since Massachusetts.
Cape and vineyard appliances are designed as financially viable, logistically approachable turnkey programs to realize the amplified benefits of households of all income levels adopting solar panels, heat pumps, batteries and using resources together. These technologies reduce emissions, reduce utility bills, and increase the resilience of homes during power failures, but in many cases, wealthy households are only adopted for advance payments.
“We intend to advance this as a model that should be emulated by other states across the country that are trying to achieve it. Decarbonization Goals,” said Todd Olinskypole, senior project director at Clean Energy Group. New Report About the program.
In total, the program offers free or subsidized solar panels and heat pumps to 55 participating households. Work will need to be completed at the final participating home this month.
“This is the first and only instance where solar and battery storage is presented in combination with electrification and traditional efficiency,” Olinky Paul said. “Instead of having some Syred programs, it’s all presented to customers in the package, so everything works well.”
It is a strategy that helps program planners deal with the unbalanced energy burden that low-income residents in the area feel, according to data from the U.S. Department of Energy. (The updated numbers are no longer available as the federal tools that provided this data are no longer available.)
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The initiative is a project from Cape Light Compact, a unique local organization that negotiates electricity supply prices and manages energy efficiency programming for 21 towns in Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard. Compact first proposed a pilot in 2018, but regulators rejected the idea. The organization submitted revised editions in 2020 and 2021, but it was not until 2023 that the state finally offered the program. Green light.
Energy efficiency contractors partner with each program participants to assess the home and coordinate the required tasks, including preparations that need to be completed before placing solar panels, heat pumps, or batteries. Batteries installed through the program are registered in the state program, which pays battery owners to send power to the grid when needed. The pilot has billed the battery, so these payments are sent to Caprite Compact, not the residents, and will bear the cost of the program.
Making the programme a reality was not necessarily a smooth process. The original proposal called for 100 homes to join the pilot, but the final number was far below that target. Stephen McCroski, an analyst at Capelite Compact and program manager for the pilot, was originally postponed by the requirement that all fossil fuel systems be removed from the home, especially if they recently invested in new gas or propane heating.
In some cases, the homeowner balked at upfront costs. Middle-income households who do not live in affordable housing restricted to conduct have had to pay 20% of the cost of heat pumps and more than $15,000 for solar panels. If the roof was too suspicious for the sunlight, the homeowner was responsible for removing trees and branches.
“At the end of the day, each customer and the decision-making process are different,” says McCloskey.
The original plan required batteries to be installed in the homes of 25 participants, but unexpected restrictions reduced the number, McCloskey said. For example, a house without a basement could not receive the battery. In some cases, the total capacity of the solar panel and battery would have exceeded the threshold for local utility to connect the system to the grid.
The compact also did not fully explain the array of barriers that need to be addressed before implementing weathering. Some homes had mold or needed an electrical upgrade. Others required roof work before installing the solar panels.
These challenges are lessons learned about utility or organizations that are trying to emulate programs in the future, rather than breaking contracts, McCloskey said. And Olinky Paul considers the great potential for similar plans to be pursued nationwide. Almost half of the US employ 100% clean energy targets, he says, and dispersed energy programs like Capes and vineyards can make those targets more achievable by reducing costs and tensions. Electrification can be created on a grid.
“If you’re going to decarbonize, you have to do electrification,” Olinky Paul said. “And there will be a great need for some way to do this without accidentally using large-scale new fossil fuels.”
Caprite Compact is set to release a full report on the pilot’s deployment in August, but the feedback so far has been very positive from participants who appreciated its turnkey approach to comprehensive electrification, McCloskey said.
“There’s no doubt that those who are driving that program need to consider it for their game planning,” he said. “But this is a great model.”
