CHARLESTOWN, N.H. – The Town of Charlestown formally made the switch to solar power at its town office in a ribbon cutting ceremony held yesterday. The 23-kilowatt array, installed by Granite State Solar, based in Bow, N.H., will cover all of the building’s electricity needs, and wipe out its annual electric bills through at least 2050.
As an added bonus, Charlestown received a $61,778 grant from the New Hampshire Department of Energy’s Municipal Solar Grant Program, covering the entire cost of the installation. These savings come on top of the more than $200,000 in projected energy savings resulting from the panels’ virtually cost-free operation over the next 30 years.
To celebrate the launch, state elected representatives, town officials, and project partners gathered at a community event, including representatives from Clean Energy New Hampshire (CENH) and Granite State Solar, as well as the Charlestown Selectboard, members of the Charlestown Energy Committee, and Town Clerk Patricia Chaffee, who oversaw the grant application.
This solar installation was years in the making. The Charlestown Selectboard began scoping out possible municipal solar projects in 2021. The selectboard, along with the Charlestown Energy Committee, selected the Charlestown Town Hall for the rooftop array, and budgeted for it in 2024.
In what proved to be good timing, Clean Energy New Hampshire, a nonprofit firm based in Concord, had just hired a new energy circuit rider to help Sullivan County towns apply for clean energy grants. The Charlestown Energy Committee quickly arranged a meeting with CENH, and town clerk Patricia Chaffee and other town officials, to get the grant process started.
That move gave Charlestown a leg up on more than two dozen other towns that also applied for Municipal Solar grants last year, but had to wait for their 2025 annual Town Meetings to get voter approval. Once the New Hampshire Department of Energy signed off on Charlestown’s application and final vendor selection this summer, the array went up in a matter of days, and grant reimbursement from the state is now being processed.
With no tax impact on Charlestown residents, the new solar array is expected to generate 122% of the town hall’s annual electricity needs. Any surplus generation will be sold back to Liberty Utilities in a “net metering” arrangement that will add to the town’s accumulating cost savings over time. In 2023, Charlestown paid $4,337 in electricity bills to operate its town office.
Altogether, 30 New Hampshire towns applied for grants in 2024 through the New Hampshire Municipal Solar Grant program. Sixteen towns, including Charlestown, were selected for final funding. Despite this program’s statewide appeal, the New Hampshire legislature voted this spring to divert $15 million in accumulated Renewable Energy Funds into the state’s general fund as a cost-cutting move. This severe cutback now leaves only $1 million left in the fund to support future solar projects built in each of the next two years.
“This pullback will make favorable outcomes like Charlestown’s much harder to come by,” commented CENH executive director Sam Evans-Brown, who lauded the town’s forward-looking moves as further evidence that “the early bird gets the worm.”
For more information, contact the Town of Charlestown at 603-826-4400, or Clean Energy New Hampshire at 603-573-9926.