TM&A has worked in the fields of energy conservation and renewable energy development since 1983. Two of our more prominent recent projects are described at length here – work at Marlboro College and development of the Energy Amplifier technology. On a separate page under the Energy section is a page for our work in building energy conservation.
TM&A believes that the cheapest and easiest way to reduce America’s contribution to global climate change is through concerted efforts at conservation. Such initiates have the additional benefits of job creation and economic development. To that end TM&A launched Home Energy Advocates in 2012 to help homeowners and small businesses to understand how to undertake major energy retrofits in a way that is cost effective. Please visit t he HEA website for more information on this program.
Project: Solarize Windham County
Our work with energy has also taken us into the realm of solar energy since 2013, specifically the organizing of ‘Solarize’ campaigns in towns in Windham County. Solarize is a process of community organizing where households buy solar photovoltaics at a discounted rate through a bulk purchase type of arrangement. In 2014 we lead or participated in Solarize initiatives in the towns of Putney, Westminster, Townshend and Windham. Others are in the works for 2015. The goal of TM&A in this initiative is to get one mega-Watt of residential solar installed for homes and businesses in Windham County. For more on this please visit the Solarize Windham County website.
Project: Windham Solid Waste Management District Solar
TM&A also has been working with the Windham Solid Waste Management District to develop a multi-megawatt solar PV array on their capped landfill on Old Ferry Road in Brattleboro. We lobbied the Vermont state legislature to receive a special dispensation in order to develop this site as a community solar array, whereby municipalities, businesses and individuals in the District could buy and own panels in the array. This project should be build in 2015.
Project: Marlboro College
TM&A was hired by Marlboro College to do a comprehensive energy analysis of the science building at this small and prestigious liberal arts college in Southern Vermont. We analyzed energy loads and usage patterns of the building, performed sophisticated thermal imaging of the building envelope, and brought in as collaborators Efficiency Vermont, the state’s energy efficiency utility, to prioritize conservation measures and assess state funding opportunities to assist with the project. Click the following link to download a PDF version of the report:
Marlboro Science Center Energy Report.pdf
Following on the Brown Science building project, TM&A was asked to initiate the process of assessing the potential to convert the entire campus to renewable energy, starting with conservation. Working with the college’s development department and a few key staff, we raised nearly $1.4 million and at the end of 2008 we commenced. Specific technologies that are part of the project’s evaluation are:
- Energy Conservation – Thermal
- Energy Conservation – Electric/Power
- Solar – Hot Water
- Solar – Photovoltaic
- Solar – Thermal
- District Heating
- Cogeneration
- Biomass (Marlboro College has >300 acres of mostly forested land)
- Wind Power (the college is situated on top of a ridgeline)
- Hydropower
- Biofuels to replace heating oil
- Geothermal Heat Pumps
- Global Climate Change – an assessment of the potential for the college to reduce its production of greenhouse gasses and eventually become ‘climate neutral.’
To date the college has undertaken a number of energy conservation measures recommended by TM&A as the first step. Other technologies are being evaluated in a slow and thorough manner. It is the belief of TM&A that Marlboro College could convert entirely to renewable energy in a way that would reduce overall expenses substantially. Below is a link to a report written by TM&A that compiles and evaluates numerous responses to a Request for Proposals for the broad list of renewable energy options the college expressed an interested in.