Energy Program News

Grant to UMass Amherst Clean Energy Extension Will Bring Solar Planning to Western Massachusetts Towns

April 24, 2020

A team at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Clean Energy Extension recently was awarded a 15-month grant to lead development of community-focused solar siting and financing procedures in three rural western Massachusetts communities - Blandford, Wendell and Westhampton.

Read more
Clean Energy Corps member Devon Lukas presents Pioneer Valley GHG Inventory

September 26, 2019

Clean Energy Corps member Devon Lukas presented preliminary results of her updated greenhouse gas inventory for Hampshire and Hampden counties to the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission (PVPC) Climate Action/ Clean Energy working group.

Read more
Massachusetts Ranked #1 for Energy Efficiency

October 1, 2019

Massachusetts once again showed leadership on clean energy, earning the #1 rank in energy efficiency for the ninth consecutive year according to the 2019 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard, released by the nonprofit American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.

Read more
State politicians visit UMass dual-use agriculture and solar research site

October 21, 2019

Local legislators visited the dual-use agriculture and solar PV research site at the UMass Crop and Animal Research and Education Center in South Deerfield. State Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, State Rep. Natalie M. Blais, D-Sunderland, and State Rep. Mindy Domb, D-Amherst, met with UMass Extension staff and representatives from Hyperion Systems LLC to discuss the compatibility of solar photovoltaics and farm production. The site is home to 106 solar panels producing 16.8 kilowatts of renewable energy as part of a photovoltaic dual-use research project aimed at growing crops and generating electricity.

Read more
CEE staff lead Eureka! program on renewable energy

July 17, 2019

CEE led a two-day program to teach local middle-schoolers about renewable energy, as part of the Eureka! Girls, Inc. program. The young scholars learned about how energy is transformed into usable forms, constructed solar ovens, cooked s'mores, and visited two local renewable energy facilities - the Holyoke hydroelectric facility and the biodigestor at Barstows' Longview Farm.

Read more
Clean Energy Extension to provide MassEnergyInsight support services

July 1, 2019

Starting this July, UMass Clean Energy Extension (CEE) will begin providing user facilitation and support services for MassEnergyInsight (MEI), the free online energy benchmarking and tracking tool used by public entities across the state.

Read more
Clean Energy Corps Completes GHG Inventory & Clean Energy Plan for Mt. Ida campus

July 13, 2019

In summer 2019, six Clean Energy Corps students from UMass Amherst traveled to Newton to complete a greenhouse gas inventory and clean energy plan for the new Mt. Ida campus, using skills and techniques acquired in a spring 2019 course led by Clean Energy Extension faculty and staff.

Read more
Report Offers Ways to Expand Mass. Battery Storage Innovation

July 9, 2019

A new report from UMass Amherst’s Clean Energy Extension, released on July 5, 2019, sees significant potential to accelerate Massachusetts’s emerging energy and battery energy storage (BES) innovation ecosystem.

Read more
Greening Municipal Fleets - Work by Clean Energy Corps Member Dugan Becker Featured

June 18, 2019

In 2018, Dugan Becker, UMass Amherst ’19, was chosen as a CAFE Summer Scholar to collect data that resulted in recommendations for reducing municipal vehicle fuel consumption in rural Massachusetts towns. His efforts, in collaboration with CEE staff, are featured in a recent news article.

Read more
CEE and Professor Crago receive SSEN seed grant to collaborate on study of solar PV and economic equity

June 4, 2019

An investigation into the equity of solar PV development by Professor Christine Crago and Extension Professor Dwayne Breger was one of three proposals selected for funding through the Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR) and the School of Earth and Sustainability’s 2019 Social Science and Environment Seed Grant competition.

Read more