Community Energy Strategies

In 2013, MassCEC and the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources Green Communities Division, launched Community Energy Strategies, an initiative aimed at partnering with local officials and community volunteers,  to identify and develop strategies for implementing the mix of clean energy projects and incentives best suited to address local interests, needs, and opportunities for clean energy development across all sectors.

Participants in the program were three communities - Newburyport, Northampton and Watertown -  and three regional planning authorities - the Franklin Regional Council of Governments, the Metropolitan Area Planning Council and the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission. Under the program, each participant received grants of services provided by specialized firms under contract to MassCEC.

Through the program, participants engaged in a planning process to:

  • develop a clean energy working group
  • establish local clean energy goals
  • review an inventory of potential clean energy projects and strategies;
  • select clean energy projects and strategies for inclusion into the final Clean Energy Roadmap.

Composed of multiple individual strategies, the Clean Energy Roadmap outlines a set of detailed, actionable steps to implementing a project, program or policy to increase the use of renewable electric generation and renewable heating and cooling technologies, building energy efficiency and sustainable transportation. It incorporates information gathered through consultations with municipal and regional planning authority staff, meetings with the clean energy working group, public forums, and technical analysis of potential clean energy projects.

The Roadmap serves both as a record of the program process, as well as a viable path for communities to achieve their clean energy goals. Below are available the Clean Energy Roadmaps for each participating community or regional planning authority, as well as the corresponding map gallery.