Energy and The Town of Bristol
As the Chair of the Bristol Energy Committee, I would like to express a few ideas that I hope you will find of interest, and stimulate some discussion.
Bristol is unique in many ways, but from an energy resource point of view, its wealthy. We happen to live in a valley with access to substantial renewable energy including hydro power, wind power, solar power, and biomass power, all within a 5-mile radius. Yet, we cannot take advantage of any of these resources to lower our monthly electric bill, and/or make our community more resilient to power grid brown or black outs. Why is that?
When the era of electricity first came to our town, there were three hydro power plants on the Newfound River that provided power to our local community. The brick dam house for the first can still be seen on route 3A north of the first bridge, the second was just south of the second bridge, and the third is still in operation near the Mills Falls Park. But during the subsequent period of consolidation, the hydro plants were let go in the interest of centralized power generation and its promise of lower energy prices through “economies of scale” using coal, oil, and nuclear sources. Yet today we experience some of the highest costs for electricity in the country. When asked why the typical answer is “New Hampshire is at the very end of the gas/oil pipeline, and so it costs more to get the electricity to you.” I don’t buy this argument. The better answer is “because we are a monopoly and we can charge you whatever we want.”
The three objectives of the Bristol Energy Committee are to reduce the cost of electricity, improve the power resiliency of our community in the case of a major power outage, and to reduce our carbon footprint by using more renewable sources of electricity. The first step to achieving these goals is the 300 KW solar array to be installed this summer for powering our waste water treatment facility. This solar array is projected to save approximately $6,000 per year due to the elimination of “transmission and distribution” charges that now constitute 60% of our month electric bills.
I believe the best course for our energy future is distributed energy production using solar, hydro, biomass, and wind. The benefits of this approach include improved power resiliency, renewable sources, and lower costs. It can also provide local jobs to keep this machinery running. It won’t be an easy task to turn back the entrenched interests in this regard, but by working with other communities in New Hampshire, I believe we have a fairly good chance. It is not a question of technology, or cost. It is a question of whether we have the will to stand up for ourselves and reclaim control of our energy future. Are you in?
Paul Bemis
Chair
Bristol Energy Committee
For more information on the Solar Facility Project, please see this link:
https://www.screencast.com/t/7qpuI4cEpR