With Congress seeking to address energy security and global warming this summer, the city of Boston is taking action to sensitize on renewable energy and environmental protection.

On Friday June 15, campaign staff from Environment Massachusetts, the new home of MASSPIRG environmental work, highlighted the potential and support for renewable energy in Massachusetts. 252 pinwheels were displayed on the Charles River Esplanade to represent the number of wind turbines that could supply 20 percent of Boston’s electricity.

The Environment Massachusetts staff also called on Congress to establish a national Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) requiring that utilities generate 20 percent of their electricity from renewable sources like wind and solar by 2020, an issue that will be debated in the House and Senate this month.

“There is no question that America has the know-how to move beyond fossil fuels and to tap into our abundant renewable energy resources,” said Jacob Koetsier, a campaign director with Environment Massachusetts. “But right now we’re just sitting on a winning lottery ticket when it comes to renewable energy—we’re not tapping into the potential that exists here in Massachusetts.”

When countries like Denmark currently derive more than 20 percent of their overall electricity generation from wind power alone, Massachusetts derives only about five percent of its electricity from clean renewable sources of energy like wind and solar power.

The new solar panels on the “Fenway Views”

A week after this event, on June 22nd, the Solar Fenway group inaugurated a new solar system installed at “Fenway Views”, the Fenway CDC mixed income condominium building with affordable rental units located on Peterborough Street in the West Fenway.

Sajed Kamal, Coordinator of Solar Fenway, Brandeis University professor and recipient of Boston “Mayor’s Green Award for Community Leadership in Energy and Climate Protection” welcomed members of the Fenway community in Ramler Park. He presented the Solar Fenway projects and introduced the inauguration speakers; among them, Carl Nagy-Koechlin, Executive Director of Fenway CDC, Kelly Dexter, Project Administrator at Massachusetts Technology Collaborative and Lauren Dewey Platt, President of the Mission Hill-Fenway Neighborhood Trust, all stated they were “very proud to be part of this first affordable project.”

Inauguration in the Ramler Park

Imanuela Costiner from HEAT (Husky Energy Action Team), a student group at Northeastern University represented the new generation voice for renewable energy use. Ross Gelbspan, Pulitzer Journalist and author underlined that it was ”not enough to put solar panels and change light bulbs.” He explained a global action was an urgent need.

City Councilor Mike Ross stated that “if Edison was the father of electricity, Sajed [Kamal] is the father of solar energy.”

In an interview after the event, Kamal explained that he sees his engagement as “a value, just like peace.” Since April 2007, the 1.5 KiloWatt system, two photovoltaic wall-mounted panels convert sunlight directly into electricity. It is rated to generate about 1790 kilowatt hours of electricity annually for the building, reducing the energy expense by that much. It will also offset about 2200 lbs. of carbon dioxide emissions, a cause for global warming. The system was funded by the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC), the Mission Hill Fenway Neighborhood Trust, Boston Public Schools, Solar Boston/Massachusetts Energy Consumers Alliance, the City of Boston, and the Fenway CDC. Hardware and installation cost $11 per watt.

Solar Fenway is a volunteer committee formed in January 2002. Through community outreach, surveys, workshops, meetings, and presentations on solar energy, they seek potential sites in residential (community housing, condominiums, cooperatives, privately owned homes), commercial (shops, laundries, restaurants), and community service (health centers, schools) buildings, and institutions (colleges, universities, museums, etc).

Sajed Kamal, Ross Gelbspan, Rosi Kamal, and Carl Nagy-Koechlin

In April 2006, Mayor Thomas Menino inaugurated the Solar Fenway first grid-connected photovoltaic systems at the Boston Arts Academy, a pilot Boston Public School, located on Ipswich Street. the PV system will serve as an educational resource, both for the school and the community.

They hope to equip next the Museum of Fine Arts, and the Red Sox Fenway Park with a larger system. “We have just started the conversation with them. We still need to discuss about the design, the final cost and the benefits they’ll get out of it,” Kamal explains.

Solar Fenway hope that their projects will facilitate widespread use of renewable energy technologies throughout the Fenway—and also in other communities.