Moments after the Belmont School Committee approved moving forward on bringing solar energy to each of Belmont's schools, Roger Colton was in a celebratory mood. 

In the small vestibule at the Chenery Middle School Tuesday night, Jan. 31, the co-chairman of the Belmont Energy Committee passed out fancy bottles of an unknown liquid to fellow co-chair Ian Todreas and solar power campaigner Phil Thayer to celebrate what each viewed as a historic moment for Belmont's environmental future.

"I so excited that it's hard to express," said Colton who said the vote will not only help reduce energy costs for Belmont schools but "will spur a real significant move throughout town for solar and other alternative energy." 

The culmination of "a year-and-a-half of planning and hundreds of hours of meetings" by members of the Energy Committee, Sustainable Belmont and the Solar Initiative, the result of their effort "was we got a 'yes' vote and it was unanimous," said a thrilled Colton.  

"We have now moved from the advocacy to the implementation stage," he said, saying that if everything goes "according to plan, "solar panels will be up and running" in the fall, possibly by the first day of school this September. 

Tuesday's School Committee 6-0 vote calls for School Superintendent Thomas Kingston to create an oversight committee – led by Tony DiCologero, head of the School Department's business and finance office, and Colton – to produce an "action plan" on establishing the groundwork towards possibly implementing the plan. 

Kingston stressed that the new committee will not have any power to move the project forward.

School Committee has final say

"The committee will only be making recommendations to the School Committee which will have final say approving" the suggested plans, Kingston said.

And while the committee will receive Request for Proposals and make recommendations on a specific installer, the RFP will be written by DiCologero and not the committee, said Kingston.

The vote came a week after Colton led a presentation by the Solar Initiative calling for the School Department to install rooftop solar photovoltaic panels on each of the town's six schools.

Colton told the School Committee the systems would save the schools $2.6 million in energy costs over a decade. The panels would not be owned by the schools but rather they will "host" the system through a power purchase agreement with a system owner/operator that would pay to install the panels on the schools. 

Environmentally, the system would reduce Belmont's carbon dioxide emissions by 1.3 million pounds a year, equal to 1.7 million vehicle miles taken off the roads. While that represents a .25 percent reduction of town-wide annual emissions, "I'm not worried ... because it is the first year in a 40-year project and that's a good first step," said Colton.

On Tuesday, Colton told School Committee member Kevin Cunningham that the worse-case scenario facing the proposal would be schools with panels not producing power. 

"But that is not likely in the extreme," said Colton, noting that even if all federal tax credits (which come under review in 2013) and state credits which makes the project feasible for the investors were eliminated, it would have no impact to Belmont because the credits will begin being vested once the project is completed.

Colton said moving forward, the real nuts-and-bolts work for the oversight committee is to begin the procurement process. 

"It means identifying solar installers and the best way to proceed," he said. 

Colton and others see the schools project as a major jumping off point to spur commercial and homeowners to commit to solar power. 

He and others point to interest from the Belmont Housing Authority, Beth El Temple Center and other retailers looking seriously at installing their own solar power systems

"The vote tonight was important for them as it was for the schools," said Colton.