By Jon Prestage
Editor
01/31/08
The group Sustainable Milton is immersed in an effort that it calls the “Milton Solar Challenge” that could net a four-kilowatt solar panel array worth nearly $50,000 to offset electricity costs of a town building or school.
The challenge requires that the group gather 300 families by April 30 willing to join the New England Wind Fund by donating either $5 a month for a year ($60) or providing a one-time $100 payment to the fund, which is a non-profit organization offering financial support for wind development projects throughout the region.As part of the Sustainable Milton campaign, approximately 100 residents showed up on a recent Saturday to take a closer look at David DeSantis’ home, which, when it was built five years ago, was much like any other house in town. Since then, DeSantis, a real estate developer, has installed a range of cutting-edge “green” features that make the home one of the more energy-efficient in town. A 10-kilowatt voltaic solar panel system provides enough electricity to make the home electricity independent. The family’s two vehicles currently run on biodiesel or recycled vegetable oil. Compact fluorescent lighting is used throughout the home. The house is extensively insulated, and before the end of the year DeSantis plans to install a 3.7 kilowatt wind turbine to power two electric vehicles that he hopes to acquire when they become available.
DeSantis is serious about energy efficiency, and he thanks Al Gore and his film, An Inconvenient Truth for his commitment to dramatically cut his energy usage.
“It’s just good citizenship,” he says. “After seeing the film I had a long talk with my son and we figured the best way was to do these things was to do it ourselves and then try to share our knowledge with others.” He also visited Amazon.com and ordered numerous copies of the film, which he then sent to friends.
The renovations to his home have cost DeSantis approximately $48,000 but he expects them to pay for themselves in less than 10 years, especially if energy costs continue to skyrocket. “There are lots of large companies out there that don’t want people to know that there are things they can readily do to cut their energy use. We can save our planet and save ourselves money at the same time,” he says. “It’s just a matter of educating ourselves. We need to realize that other people in the world do not consume energy like we do.” The International Energy Agency, which monitors energy usage worldwide reports that the United States consumed nearly 25 percent of the world’s energy in 1999, a total of nearly two billion metric tons of oil equivalent, while the entire world consumed less than eight billion metric tons. Daryl Warner, a member of Sustainable Milton and an independent television producer explained that the Gore film influenced him greatly, along with the cost of heating oil. “The film had a huge impact on me. We have to change our ways, but people often don’t know what they can do or that they can do anything. We need to help them to realize that there’s a lot they can do.” Laurie Macintosh, who founded Sustainable Milton 15 months ago is leading the solar challenge. She says the time is right for Milton to join other towns involved in the challenge, including Boston, Cambridge, and Newton. She says that the 110 members of Sustainable Milton have begun a grassroots campaign to reach 300 families by the April 30 deadline. “We know we can do this,” she says. As an incentive, the organization is offering those who join by Feb. 15 a chance to win a free one-week vacation in Hawaii. The vacation includes a private condo on the island of Kauai that sleeps six, roundtrip airfare from Boston for two, limousine service to Logan Airport, and offsets from Mass Energy to defray the CO2 from the flights. For information on the challenge and the Hawaiian vacation, visit www.SustainableMilton.org.