{"id":2443354,"date":"2019-04-24T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-24T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/towns-climate-change-plan-moving-forward\/"},"modified":"2019-04-24T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-04-24T14:00:00","slug":"snowmass-villages-climate-change-plan-moving-forward-with-1m-in-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/snowmass-villages-climate-change-plan-moving-forward-with-1m-in-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"Snowmass Village\u2019s climate change plan moving forward with $1M in projects"},"content":{"rendered":"
Solar panels<\/strong>
Aspen Times file photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The next step in Snowmass Village\u2019s plan to combat climate change should come early next month.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when Snowmass Village Town Council is scheduled to address and likely approve six local projects that will harness the sun and water to lower both the town\u2019s electrical costs and its carbon emissions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to do something,\u201d said Councilman Tom Goode. \u201cAnd not just our municipality, but our generation. We need to lower our carbon footprints for our children and our children\u2019s children.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to straighten out the Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most of the proposed projects set to come before the council May 6 involve installing solar panels at five municipal buildings in Snowmass Village, said Travis Elliott, assistant to the town manager. Those buildings include Town Hall and the public works department \u2014 where the panels will be located on the ground \u2014 as well as the Snowmass Recreation Center, Mountain View II apartments and Town Park Station, where the panels will be installed on the roofs, Elliott said.<\/p>\n

The sixth project is the installation of a hydro-turbine in a vault across Brush Creek Road from Town Hall that will generate electricity, possibly to sell back to Holy Cross Energy, he said.<\/p>\n

The cost for all six projects is roughly $1 million, Elliott said. Of that amount, $340,000 will come in the form of grants from the local nonprofit Community Office for Resource Efficiency (CORE) and the state\u2019s Department of Local Affairs, Elliott said. The rest will be paid for by Snowmass Village, he said.<\/p>\n

The solar panels will offset 73% of the town\u2019s electricity costs for operating those buildings, Elliott said. Together, the six projects are likely to generate a total of about $40,000 a year in savings or revenue generation, he said.<\/p>\n

The solar panels will have paid for themselves in energy cost savings after 16\u00bd years, while they are expected to last about 25 years, Elliott said. And though the economics are not ideal, cost is not the only consideration, he said.<\/p>\n

Snowmass Village Mayor Markey Butler echoed that sentiment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a lot of money,\u201d she said. \u201cBut at the end of the day, you can\u2019t always focus on the financial side. Our commitment to environmental causes \u2026 outweighs the dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mona Newton, CORE\u2019s executive director, gave Snowmass Village props for its environmental commitment and noted that the town had been part of CORE since the nonprofit was created 25 years ago. Further, she said she particularly appreciates that the solar panels at Town Hall \u2014 which CORE is specifically helping pay for \u2014 will be on the ground and visible, which can prompt residents and businesses to invest in solar power as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot everybody wants to see solar panels,\u201d Newton said. \u201cI do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The six new projects \u2014 which Butler said she expects will be approved unanimously May 6 \u2014 are part of Snowmass Village\u2019s commitment to combating climate change. In 2015, Town Council set a goal of reducing its carbon emissions 20% by 2020.<\/p>\n

So far, the number has been reduced by 17%, mainly through more energy efficient buildings, building code changes and by participating in Holy Cross Energy\u2019s renewable energy program, Elliott said.<\/p>\n

The solar panels and the hydro-turbine will only bump up the total by about 1%, he said. However, every little bit counts, Butler said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoving forward, we had hoped for much greater (gains) at the end of the day,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I don\u2019t care if it\u2019s .01%, we\u2019re still making strides.\u201d<\/p>\n

jauslander@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Solar panelsAspen Times file photo The next step in Snowmass Village\u2019s plan to combat climate change should come early next month. That\u2019s when Snowmass Village Town Council is scheduled to address and likely approve six local projects that will harness the sun and water to lower both the town\u2019s electrical costs and its carbon emissions. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2443354","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-17 06:20:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2443354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443354\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2443354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2443354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2443354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}