Please find below the
Finalist Evaluation
Judges'' ratings
| • | Novelty: | |
| • | Feasibility: | |
| • | Impact: | |
| • | Presentation: |
Judges'' comments
SUBJECT: Your proposal has been selected as a Finalist!
Congratulations! Your proposal, Just Green It, in the Atypical Ideas for Carbon Neutrality in Somerville contest, has been selected to advance to the Finalists round.
Be proud of your accomplishment – more than 350 proposals were submitted and only a very small number have been advanced through these two rounds of judging.
As a Finalist, your proposal is eligible for the contest’s Judges Choice award, as well as the contest’s Popular Choice award, which is determined by public voting.
If you haven’t already, you will soon receive an email from the Climate CoLab staff with details about the voting period. If you don’t receive that email within the next day, or have other questions, please contact the Climate CoLab staff at admin@climatecolab.org
All winners will be announced the week after the voting period ends, on September 12, 2015 at midnight Eastern Time.
Both Judges Choice and Popular Choice will receive a special invitation to attend selected sessions at MIT’s SOLVE conference and present their proposals before key constituents in a workshop the next day, where a $10,000 Grand Prize will be awarded. A few select Climate CoLab winners will join distinguished SOLVE attendees in a highly collaborative problem-solving session. Some contests have additional prizes given by the contest sponsor.
This is a great idea, and, as the proposal creators are aware, Somerville is actively exploring aggregation. The proposal is valuable because it pulls together past communities' experiences with ideas on how to implement similarly/differently in Somerville.
Thank you for your work on this very important issue. We’re proud of your proposal, and we hope that you are too. Again, congratulations!
2015 Climate CoLab Judges
Semi-Finalist Evaluation
Judges'' ratings
| • | Novelty: | |
| • | Feasibility: | |
| • | Impact: | |
| • | Presentation: |
Judges'' comments
SUBJECT: Your proposal has been selected as a Semi-Finalist!
Congratulations! Your proposal, "Just Green it - Purchasing Electricity from Renewable Sources for Somerville" in the Atypical Ideas for Carbon Neutrality contest, has been selected to advance to the Semi-Finalists round.
You will be able to revise your proposal and add new collaborators if you wish, from July 1st until July 16, 2015 at 23:59pm Eastern Time.
Judges' feedback are posted under the "Evaluation" tab of your proposal. Please incorporate this feedback in your revisions, or your proposal may not be advanced to the Finalists round. We ask you to also summarize the changes that you made in the comment section of the Evaluation tab.
At the revision deadline listed below, your proposal will be locked and considered in final form. The Judges will undergo another round of evaluation to ensure that Semi-Finalist proposals have addressed the feedback given, and select which proposals will continue to the Finalists round. Finalists are eligible for the contest’s Judges Choice award, as well as for public voting to select the contest’s Popular Choice award.
Thank you for your great work and again, congratulations!
2015 Climate CoLab Judges
This is a great idea that we are actively exploring at this moment.
The proposal to adopt a CCA model is very well written, researched, and annotated. A pleasure to read, actually. As the proposer likely knows, the city is embarking on this path and has selected a municipal aggregation task force to help introduce the idea of CCA to the city officials and the community. The proposal has very helpfully supplied the electricity rates of CCA-participating communities. Do you have any hypothesis as to why the basic rate for Cape Light Compact is higher than all other communities' as well as the Eversource rate? Additionally, it would be helpful to know how the different towns went about educating their councilors and community in order to pass initial legislation approving research of an aggregation plan. The internal barriers can just as difficult as the external ones - review by DOER and DPU. Suggestions for developing internal buy-in would be appreciated.
3comments
Share conversation:
Share via:
 Stefanie Wnuck Jul 9, 2015 06:10  | Proposal creator
Thank you for your helpful feedback. As I'm working to gather additional information for proposal revisions, I'm wondering whether the judges might be interested in information about green electricity suppliers other MA municipalities have contracted with (e.g., Hampshire Power) as well as CCA consultants (e.g., Colonial Power Group) who have experience working in the state. I did not mention specific companies/organizations in my initial proposal intentionally, but since the City of Somerville is already considering a CCA model, I'm wondering whether additional information or potential insights may be useful.
Thanks,
Stefanie
|
Stefanie Wnuck Jul 16, 2015 10:09 | Proposal creator
A number of revisions and improvements have been made to the proposal. Here is a summary, by section:
• Pitch – Revised language to be more understandable to a general audience.
• Summary – Updated statistics on prevalence of CCAs in MA; general editing.
• What actions – Simplified bulleted steps; general editing.
• Additional background on CCA – Updated citations with more recent research studies;
general editing.
• Who will take actions – Expanded on the concept that municipalities can choose to manage their own energy efficiency program with funds from the system benefit charge; added details about to potential role of an energy broker as well as community groups in building internal support for a CCA approach.
• Carbon neutrality contributions – Updated GHG reduction estimates using a more simplified methodology.
• Other key benefits – Expanded on the ability to support energy efficiency programs; general editing.
• Costs – Updated electric supply rates as some of the rates had changed (e.g., Cape Light Compact) and included rate information from additional CCA municipalities in MA as well the default utility providers throughout the state; streamlined the information by creating a series of tables to more easily compare rates and program offerings; Added information on recent development where a group of MA municipalities are proposing to aggregate existing individual CCAs; Added information on the financial benefits of energy efficiency measures.
• Timeline – General editing.
• References – Added new references.
In addition, I interviewed the Director of Housing & Energy Programs from the City of Lowell as well as the Compact Administrator and the Senior Power Supply Planner from Cape Light Compact and incorporated their experiences and insights into the proposal.
|
Stefanie Wnuck Jul 16, 2015 11:50 | Proposal creator
I also created a map showing municipalities in Massachusetts that are currently have a community choice aggregation or a proposed program is under consideration.
|
