Rocky Hill, Conn., February 27, 2007 – The Connecticut Clean Energy Fund (CCEF) today announced that it has presented fifteen Connecticut towns – Bloomfield, Canton, Cheshire, Chester, Essex, Hartford, Harwinton, Meriden, Plainville, Salisbury, Stamford, West Hartford, Westport, Wethersfield and Woodbridge – with grants of $5,000 each to help their communities support clean energy awareness and education. The CCEF program through which the grants were provided is known as the Community Innovations Grants Program. These new grants follow nine grants announced previously, bringing the total number of Connecticut towns awarded grants through this program to 24.
Under the program, which is funded with $200,000 from CCEF, the first 40 qualifying Connecticut cities and towns are being offered a $5,000 block grant from CCEF. In order to qualify, a municipality must first commit to the SmartPower 20% by 2010 clean energy campaign and attend a workshop on the grants program. The local energy task force in each town coordinates a micro-grant giving process, soliciting and reviewing project proposals from nonprofit organizations or individuals motivated to start up local clean energy awareness and education projects. The energy task force in each town then determines which projects to support with micro-grants of between $250 and $2,000. This program is intended to support creative new ways of promoting and supporting clean renewable energy in our communities.
“In addition to helping Connecticut cities and towns generate awareness of and support for clean energy at the local level, these grants are an excellent tool to help communities qualify for earned solar PV systems,” said Lise Dondy, president of CCEF. “Many communities have creatively used the grants to generate enough clean energy sign-ups to qualify them as Connecticut Clean Energy Communities, thereby earning them the CCEF-provided solar PV systems.”
One of the successful projects funded by the initial round of grants was a campaign by a Boy Scout troop in Portland to raise money for an emergency communications system for the town that would potentially incorporate a solar photovoltaic system. Similarly, the energy task forces in Bethany and Fairfield have helped stimulate enrollments in the CTCleanEnergyOptions program offered to all customers of CL&P and United Illuminating by offering new customers free compact fluorescent lightbulbs that save both energy and money.
For more information regarding the Community Innovations Grants Program, visit www.ctcleanenergy.com/communities/grants.
For information regarding the towns’ plans for deploying their clean energy grant funds, please contact the towns’ local clean energy contacts, whose names are noted at: www.ctcleanenergy.com/communities.
About the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund (CCEF)
CCEF was created by the Connecticut General Assembly and is administered by Connecticut Innovations, a quasi-public organization. CCEF promotes the development and commercialization of clean energy technologies; the creation of clean energy supply; and the demand for electricity from clean, renewable sources in Connecticut in order to strengthen Connecticut’s economy, protect community health, improve the environment, and promote a secure energy supply for the state. CCEF’s funding comes from a surcharge on electric ratepayers’ utility bills. For more information on CCEF, please visit www.ctcleanenergy.com.
About Connecticut Innovations, Inc.
Connecticut Innovations (CI) is a quasi-public organization dedicated to driving a vibrant, entrepreneurial, technology-based economy in Connecticut. CI stimulates high-tech growth by investing in: early-stage Connecticut technology companies; university/industry research collaborations; technology transfer; and, clean energy initiatives through the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund. CI also fosters collaboration among government, business, non-profit and academic organizations to advance technology growth and promotes public policies consistent with CI’s mission. For more information on CI, please visit www.ctinnovations.com.
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