SWAMPSCOTT — The Climate Action and Resilience Committee discussed potential grant opportunities for Swampscott schools after the Town was designated as a Climate Leader Community by the Healey-Driscoll administration.
Through the Town’s status as a Climate Leader Community, Swampscott now has access to grant funding to implement clean energy projects, which will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance sustainability.
The Town, as part of this designation, must produce a municipal decarbonization plan that provides a roadmap to decarbonize all of Swampscott’s municipal buildings by 2050.
“As most of you know, we did get the designation as a Climate Leader last year, which made us eligible for substantial grant opportunities, and there were two,” Committee Chair Martha Schmitt explained. “One is a technical assistance grant. I met with Facilities Director Max Kasper, and we submitted that application.”
Schmitt said the Committee was exploring the best options on how to decarbonize the high school building, with the request of a $150,000 grant for the project.
“That includes the HVAC system, with consideration as to whether or not it should be a geothermal system instead, similar to what we did at the elementary school… We also want to consider a solar canopy as part of that study because the parking lot has plans to be renovated in the near future.” Schmitt said.
She added that the committee should also consider storage for solar energy.
Schmitt said the state wanted to see what communities can accomplish in decarbonization in chunks by 2026, 2030, 2040, and 2050.
“Part of this was driven by what is already in our capital plan, which spells out roughly the next 10 years. After 10 years, we don’t really have any budgets set aside… Initially, we identified the municipal buildings that were in the budget for the capital plan, and then we made a projection,” she said. “We chose the high school for this particular grant opportunity because its the highest emitter and produces the most emissions of all buildings in town.”
The other grant opportunity is up to $1 million dollars, Schmitt said, with the goal of it being used for the addition of a solar canopy for the elementary school.
“The elementary school already has solar panels that are in the process of being installed, but there’s a hiccup with National Grid. The latest information I got from Max (Kasper) is that they would require substantial capital investment in order to go ahead with the solar canopy,” she said. “So, it may be something that we can’t do because it wouldn’t be cost effective; we wouldn’t recoup the cost in any timeframe.”
Schmitt also noted that the projected use of the solar panels, combined with solar canopy, generated 70% of the power required for the elementary school.
“You have to also bear in mind that during the summer is when you’re getting the most amount of solar energy, and you’re not using the school at that time, so there’s a significant mismatch there,” Committee member Suzanne Hale said.
Committee member George Allen said, “The bottom line is: The grid needs to be able to absorb a lot of power on a summer, sunny day when the school is basically closed… And that costs money; that type of infrastructure costs money.”
Schmitt also said the Committee should consider a back-up project.
“This is why we’re doing this study up front: because the application for the project has to be in by either February or August (2026)…We’re talking about doing the application soon, or pushing it off to the summer,” Committee member Geralyn Falco explained.
Schmitt responded, “We were going to do it in February because the solar canopy was already designed… I’m not sure that we have another project that’s ready to go.”
Discussions will be continued at future Committee meetings.
