Hillsborough leaders and renewable energy strategists recently held a town hall public information session on the town’s clean energy goals.
Hillsborough Mayor Tom Stevens said it is just the beginning, and that there is not a plan right now but rather a commitment from the town.
“We don’t know how we’re going to do this, but we know that it’s important; it’s important for the planet; it’s important for Hillsborough,” Stevens said. “If there’s a place where we can take some leadership, we want to see this outcome that we ultimately be 100 percent clean energy.”
The long-term goal aims to increase Hillsborough’s renewable energy usage to 80 percent by the year 2030 and 100 percent renewable energy by 2050.
A regional government organization that focuses on opportunities that cross jurisdictional lines, the Triangle J Council of Governments or TJCOG, went over information from an assessment of current energy usage in the town at the session.
“What our TJCOG consultants have done for us is at least done a very quick passing survey of just, what is our energy use right now? What is our basic? And it really falls into two camps,” said Stevens. “Our vehicles, the fuel that we’re using for our trucks and vehicles, mostly gasoline and some diesel and so we had some numbers about how much we’re using of that on an annual basis. And then if you take all of our buildings and facilities – the police station, the wastewater treatment plant – how much electricity are we using? And so that’s kind of our base line.”
According to Stevens, the town’s biggest electricity users are the wastewater treatment plant, which he described as one of the best and most efficient in the country, and the police station, which makes up one third of the town‘s entire workforce.
Stevens said the goal will require partnership from Duke Energy and other large producers and that the town is committed to doing it right.
“We’ve got to be planful. We can’t just jump in and start doing a lot of little things that look really good, ‘Oh, let’s go buy some vehicles.’ What we really want to do is, what’s it going to take in the long run? We asked the public to be patient with us; one to stay with us and to keep sort of pushing us but to the other level is to be patient because what we want to do as a community is to be very, very planful as we move ahead so we can make it work.”
Although Hillsborough only has control of town facilities, Stevens said that the town wants to involve citizens and make the future renewable energy something that everyone can tap into.
Photo via Town of Hillsborough
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