The Cohasset Alternative Energy Committee established a new subcommittee on Thursday to steer the town’s partnership with National Grid, aiming to unlock significant energy savings for municipal buildings, local businesses, and residents. The move comes as the committee also learned the town's public electric vehicle charging stations may go offline for a period after their service contract expires on October 28.

The primary focus of the meeting was a detailed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with National Grid's Community Solutions Program. Member Debbie Cook presented the agreement, which obligates the town to pursue energy efficiency goals across several sectors. "We do have an obligation to national grid that's more than just the municipal side," Cook explained, advocating for a dedicated group to manage the effort. "What I would like is… a subcommittee… to kind of come up with a work plan to address these these different issues and show National Grid that we are operating in good faith for what they're doing for us." The committee unanimously supported the idea, with members Barbara Russell and Steven Wenner volunteering to join Cook on the new subcommittee. "I think I'd like to be a member of that committee," said Wenner. Russell added that while there is "a lot of leg work to be done," the partnership is crucial. Chair Tanya Bodell framed the subcommittee's mission, stating it would focus on "understanding the requirements of the MOU and developing a proposal on how to achieve those obligations." The committee then voted on the proposal. Motion Made by Tanya Bodell to establish a subcommittee focused on understanding the requirements of the MOU and developing a proposal on how to achieve those obligations. Motion Passed (Unanimous).

In other news, Assistant Town Planner Julia Gillis delivered a critical update on the town's EV charging infrastructure. The service agreement with the current network provider, ChargePoint, is set to expire on October 28. While the town is part of a state-funded "rip and replace" program to install new hardware, a gap in service is possible. "Our service agreement is set to expire October 28th," Gillis reported. "Town leadership was not willing to extend the ChargePoint agreement for another year… the worst case scenario was like beginning of November, beginning to mid-November [for the new system to be active]." This news followed a data report from member Chris Oddleifson, who noted that after a fee was instituted, charger usage "dropped like a stone and it's pretty much stayed constant." The solar array at the former landfill continues to be a bright spot, having generated over $526,000 in net benefits for Cohasset to date, though production has been hampered by inverter issues.

The committee also reviewed progress on two time-sensitive warrant articles for the November Special Town Meeting: one to authorize leasing roof space at the Osgood and Deer Hill schools for new solar panels, and a second establishing a resolution for municipal functions to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. Toward the end of the meeting, member Thomas Daley raised a concern about the Public Safety Building project, where budget constraints may threaten planned energy efficiency upgrades. "The budget on the new fire station... has run up a let's just say into some headwinds," Daley said. "I'm concerned about what may fall by the wayside." The committee began by untangling a mix-up in meeting minutes from August, with member Doran Hole noting an omission, "I think if I remember correctly, I was there, but my name's missing from the list."

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 9:30 PM.