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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Energy Committee - 12/08/2021South Burlington Energy Committee Meeting Minutes December 8,2021 Committee members present: Ethan Goldman (Chair),Steve Crowley,Keith Epstein,Marcy Murray,MJ Reale(scribe),Sam Swanson Committee members absent:Kate Bailey,Andrew Chalnick,Linda McGinnis,Tim Perrin City staff present:Ilona Blanchard,Lou Bresee Community members present:Wayne Nadeau City Council’s charge: The charge of the South Burlington Energy Committee is to promote energy conservation,energy efficiency,and the use of renewable energy resources among the city's residents,businesses,and in municipal affairs.The committee assists the city in addressing the goals to promote energy efficiency,affordable energy,and lessen reliance (per capita)on non-renewable energy resources. Convene:Ethan called the meeting to order via Zoom shortly after 6:30 p.m.and MJ agreed to scribe. Ilona and Lou attended at City Hall. There were no comments from the public not related to the agenda. Minutes.Keith moved to approve the draft minutes from November 10th.Steve seconded the motion.The motion was approved with 6 voting in favor. Determine Future of Energy Prize Website Keith owns the domain name EnergyPrize.org and the city pays for the hosting.It was set up a number of years ago for the South Burlington Energy Prize campaign and is no longer promoted or receives much traffic.It generates a lot of spam to Keith.Keith proposed that it be taken down and that the content be backed up.Some of the content is evergreen and can be put on the Energy Committee section of the South Burlington website.It was noted that CAP (Climate Action Plan)is also updated on the city’s website.Ilona will investigate what the hosting status and cost are.She suggested that some of the content may be appropriate for other sections on the city website –for example: weatherization/energy conservation under “new residents”.The group agreed the site should be taken down and a sub-group can determine what content should go on the Energy Committee section and elsewhere on the city’s website.Ethan recommended User Stories to organize the info and can be used for enhancing community communication. https://www.bath.ac.uk/guides/creating-user-stories-for-web-content/ There will also be a redirect from EnergyPrize.org to our Facebook page or the city site EC page. Keith will send links to the group and committee members can comment. FY23 Workplan for the City Council Steve presented 3 documents that he prepared for the group to discuss the Workplan.Two documents identified what projects each committee member was interested in (Keith’s diagram and written list.)The third document is the spreadsheet with all of the details of various projects under consideration. The group discussed whether we need to cut out projects,how to determine priorities,what is achievable and if all columns need to be filled out. Ilona clarified that the workplan we are looking to finalize should be for the FY23 year (July 1, 2022 –June 30,2023).FY22 Workplan was approved by the Council in November.She was able to include information about EC work in that document.–specifically in the sections related to bike/ped infrastructure,CAP,energy data,weatherization,energy efficiency,land use. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0By9qn29_wqbKfkNhWlo0cEk4d2tnNmNZMEx4SFZQU1 9zZzlfajI3dnVFbU5icE1vZ1djOE0?resourcekey=0-qU_-5kcWoqZgNa6oZlYuJg Ilona mentioned that she will be reporting on all objectives on January 18.She pointed out that we want a project list that is achievable and we can report on them at years end.The FY23 workplan is due in March –date TBD. Keith pointed out that for the next round of Workplan revisions,each committee member should commit to a project or it will get put aside for the future.Ethan suggested that we keep all of the projects that we want to do on the spreadsheet and identify those that are for the current year and those for future consideration.The group agrees that we need to focus on specific achievable projects even if there are fewer for this next year. Keith will do another round of consolidating the workplan projects that Steve created and then send it out to the group to look at.Then everyone can choose which projects they want to work on and we'll wrap up the plan at our next meeting. Solar PV in the SB Land Development Regulations The group discussed the letter that Andrew provided with the intent to send to the City Council.The draft LDRs do incorporate a solar-ready requirement for new commercial buildings,but do not include a Solar PV mandate. However,Ilona provided a status update -this is now out of the Planning Commission and was presented at the last Council meeting.There will be a public meeting on January 3.The Energy Committee discussed whether it is too late to send this letter or not.The group decided not to send the letter now because we cannot affect the process now but could for future LDR changes.We can put this on the Workplan for next year and send our letter when they consider changes again.At that time the letter could include:1)research 2)what other communities done 3)what we recommend MJ expressed concern that we may be missing important dates and should keep a calendar.It was suggested that we ask Paul Conner for his schedule and that will inform the dates we need to be aware of. Carbon tracking proposal from POWER-D.city/Dude Solutions Ethan is requesting that his company Power-D.city have access to South Burlington energy data to help develop an energy management program for communities,which helps them accomplish their energy goals.He would organize South Burlington files and write code in order to create a pilot to be used with other communities.EC and South Burlington will have access to the solution once developed. Ilona asked how this would relate to Portfolio Manager software that they currently use.Ethan said they would be a separate analysis.There would be an MOU and agreement set up with South Burlington clarify the collection and use of the data.Keith moved to accept the proposal, Marcy seconded and the committee approved. Dude Solutions will be discussed at a future meeting. Honda Clarity lease Intended to discuss recommended process to calculate cost-savings and emissions benefits from the lease,but Lou updated the group that this has been resolved and it is all paid off.They are still working on the roof solar savings calculations. Climate Action Plan Ethan updated the group that the task force had their first meeting that include Melanie Needle and Ann Janda from CCRCP.They had a broad discussion of priorities – the scope included buildings,transportation,energy tracking. SBHS solar bike shelter MJ updated the group.Kate put together a list of questions that framed discussion with Kate,Ethan,MJ and Andrew about how to get feedback from the school on functionality and location of the shelter.MJ crafted an email for this sub group to review and is ready to send it to 3 teachers who worked with our intern last year and helped SBEC survey students.Andrew is concerned about dragging this out when Gary the SB facilities manager is motivated to move on this.He has reached out to Gary and David Young (Superintendent)to find out if they have had feedback from school community and has not heard back yet. Weatherization Keith was contacted by Dwight DeCoster from CVOEO (Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity)who is interested in presenting to the Energy Committee and we could invite the community to attend.MJ suggested that we consider making this an event separate from our monthly meetings.Ilona suggested that we could include the Affordable Housing Committee to help with promotion.Ilona suggests we aim for the first week in February.There are two room options at City Hall that can accommodate a hybrid in person/virtual event.Keith will follow up with Dwight to see if there is interest in a public event. Misc ●Keith connected with new Hartford Sustainability Manager.They discussed the need for an implementation team once the CAP is written and adopted. ●Steve updated the group on what is happening at the state level for the Climate Action Plan and Comprehensive Energy Plan and will send everyone the links to the latest info. ●Next month meeting will include a discussion of the EC chair role. ●Vecan meeting about Energy Committees –here is link with resources https://vecan.net/communications-toolkit/ Adjourn:Meeting was adjourned at 8:54 pm. Next Meeting:Wednesday,January 12 at 6:30 PM.