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Energy & Sustainability Committee outlines solar, EV and single-hauler plans for Sudbury
Summary
The committee reported progress on EV chargers, municipal solar projects, a townwide lighting retrofit, a school composting pilot and work on a single refuse‑hauler model; it also won a vulnerability‑planning grant and will pursue a deeper community vulnerability study.
The Sudbury Energy & Sustainability Committee told the Select Board on Sept. 24 that it has several projects moving from planning to implementation, including EV charging, municipal solar installations, a townwide lighting retrofit and studies on community vulnerabilities and composting.
Committee Chair Rami Alwan said the committee has funded EV chargers for Goodnow Library and the Fairbanks Community Center and is preparing to site larger solar installations on town property, including a proposal for parking-lot solar canopies. "We're moving forward on putting solar on the DPW building," Alwan told the board, and he said the Fairbanks Community Center roof and natatorium remain priorities for solar placement once structural work is complete.
Alwan also described a strategy for small solar purchases for town-owned Fire Stations 2 and 3, which he said are modest systems ("in the $20,000–$30,000 range") that the town should buy outright rather than place under a power‑purchase agreement. He reported the committee renewed the town's electricity aggregation contract, saving residents roughly 4¢ per kilowatt-hour versus Eversource's expected winter rates.
On waste and recycling the committee reported a two‑track approach. It funded a two‑year school composting pilot through a vendor (Black Earth) pending final school implementation, and it is studying a single refuse‑hauler model intended to lower household costs and reduce traffic by consolidating pickups. Alwan described Concord’s model as a pay-as-you-go system with periodic sticker purchases and said a similar approach could reduce per-household costs to about $300–$350 for six months of service.
The committee also won a municipal vulnerability preparedness grant and will issue an RFP for a community vulnerability study that updates Sudbury’s 2019 work and drills deeper into emergent issues like flooding and drainage. The committee completed a greenhouse‑gas emissions study over the summer, Alwan said, and plans public engagement at flu clinics and farmers markets to collect resident input for resilience planning.
Board members asked about equity and access for a single‑hauler program (smaller bins, driveway pickup for seniors), potential contractor resistance to a specialized stretch energy code, and the opportunity to site solar on school buildings — subject to school committee cooperation and roof‑replacement timing.
What's next: The committee aims to present a single‑hauler proposal and a specialized stretch‑code recommendation by late winter/early spring for possible town‑meeting consideration in May.
