By Ann Shed, Originally Published in The Monadnock Shopper News, Green Monadnock column, September 2024
Are you wondering how to make your home or small business more energy efficient or how to choose more modern and efficient heating and cooling systems or home appliances? Are you intrigued by electric cars, pick-ups, bikes, or motorcycles and trying to figure out if one would be a good choice for you? Do you wish you could talk to fellow residents or business owners who have made any of these changes? Would you like to help your community to do more to make the change-up easier?
On Saturday, September 28, from 11 AM to 4 PM at the Keene Airport, the Monadnock Clean Energy Fair can help steer you to answers and follow-up contacts, all in a fun and interactive way. There will be demonstrations, presentations, contractors, non-profit consultants, and peer-to-peer volunteer energy coaches to help you start toward some answers and action.
Whether you are a homeowner or a renter, the many different opportunities can be confusing: what to do, how to do it, and how to afford it. NHSaves offers services, programs, and incentives for weatherization and energy efficiency. Southwest Community Services, the region’s Community Action Program, coordinates energy and fuel assistance programs and may also provide access to home energy audits and weatherization. Multiple regional private contractors offer insulation and weatherization, heat pumps, or solar panel installation. To help you out, the non-profit Monadnock Sustainability Hub is organizing a clean-energy” coaching” initiative, and the September 28 event will demonstrate what one-on-one coaching might look like for you. If you would like to benefit from being coached or have the experience to offer volunteer coaching, you can sign up for a pilot phase of the program.
Multiple resources are available for small business owners. Clean Energy NH’s Energy Circuit Riders and the Community Development Finance Authority can assist small businesses, municipalities, and non-profits looking to access energy audits, decide what might be the best and most cost-saving upgrades, or navigate what funding or financing is available. Hannah Grimes Center is coordinating Solar Coaching for small business owners, with coaching by local business owners who have completed projects on their own facilities.
What Clean Energy Fair would be complete without an Electric Vehicle Expo? The September 28 event will include electric pick-up trucks, electric or plug-in hybrid passenger cars, electric motorcycles, electric bikes, and maybe an electric riding mower. Look “under the hoods” and see how simple the mechanics of an EV are compared to a gas-powered vehicle! Private owners, as well as several car dealers, will be on hand to answer your questions about the satisfaction (and fun) of these vehicles, as well as how to charge them at home or on the road. Some of the owners or dealers may offer test rides or drives.
Interested in community-scale efforts in clean energy? If your town doesn’t already have an Energy Committee, several of the organizations at the Fair can help you see how citizens can pull together a grass-roots group or how to work with your Town officials to form a municipal Energy Commission. These groups can help municipal facilities become more energy efficient (saving tax dollars) and ease the process for residents and businesses to achieve their energy goals as well. Southwest Region Planning Commission can fill you in on local towns that have worked on Safe Routes to School plans, rail trails, and the State’s Transportation Plan that may bring inter-city bus transportation to SW New Hampshire. Drive, bike, or walk to the end of Airport Road, and you can take a look at the solar field powering the Wastewater Treatment Plant.
There will be no shortage of fun and food at the event. A “kid tent” will have assorted games for all ages. Mama McDonough’s will serve in its Airport Terminal restaurant, deck, and food truck, and the Sleazy Vegan food -truck will offer vegan fare.
Join us at the Monadnock Clean Energy Fair at the Keene Airport on Saturday, September 28, from 11-4. The Fair is organized and presented by the non-profit Monadnock Sustainability Hub in collaboration with the City of Keene Energy and Climate Committee and the Swanzey Energy Commission, and generous business sponsorships for the event.
Ann Shedd is a retired physician, a former member of the City of Keene’s Conservation Commission and Energy and Climate Committee, and a current member of the Board of the Monadnock Sustainability Hub.