When we moved to town in the fall of 2015, the first thing we did was install solar on our new home. We had installed solar on our previous home and found it to be an excellent investment. We were also able to leverage incentives to help others install solar. It is of benefit to our farm business that we can tell customers that our entire farm is powered by the sun.

I had a 40-panel, 12kWAC system installed in May.  I originally had signed a deal with one of the big national companies, but it broke down when they wouldn't install as large of a system as I wanted.  If you don't know, the MA law was changed about a year ago to raise the net metering cap exemption from 10kWAC to 25kWAC.  However, because the DPU is taking its sweet time officially issuing the corresponding updated guidance to National Grid, you can't get full net metering on a system that size yet.  So for the time being, even though the law has changed, you still have to install a >10kW system as a "qualifying facility (QF)", which gives you a less favorable net metering rate.  The original company wouldn't do a QF installation.  Figuring all that out and dealing with it was exactly as fun as it sounds, but New England Clean Energy were very knowledgeable about the situation and very responsive, so I ended up switching to them.  They were really well-organized and easy to deal with, so the installation went well.  I didn't worry about the looks too much originally, but now I kind of think the house actually looks a little better with the panels on it.  After about a 3-month wait, I got my permission to operate and I can make about 50-60kWh on a good day.  Now I'm just waiting for my correct net metering rate to come through.

We have enjoyed our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share boxes from Westward Orchards for many seasons now. Support your local farm, your community and the earth! 

We got so much helpful advice from our free Mass Save assessment and then significant savings on new insulation throughout the energy leaking areas of our 1950s house. We felt the difference immediately -- much cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. 

I was very pleased to work with Worth Robbins to join Harvard Solar Garden II.  The Harvard Solar Garden iniative is a tribute to the hard work of Worth and others.  I appreciate Paul Green taking the leadership position after Worth passed away.

I tell anyone who will listen, regardless of where they live, about how great it is to have Harvard Solar Garden in our town.

We've had an electric car for a couple years now and it has worked out pretty well.  Since neither my wife nor I have to be at our office every day, usually whoever is going to work that day takes it, and we try to mostly use that one.  Then we use the gas car more for longer trips  to the middle of nowhere or when we have to haul kayaks and furniture and such.  We have a Model 3 and I think it's been pretty thoroughly reviewed at this point.  It does have its flaws, but there's a reason it's a popular car.  I'll probably replace the gas SUV with an electric at some point as well, but right now there's not really anything with the same cargo capacity at a price that makes sense.  I'm keeping an eye out.