Dr. Benjamin S. Weil, CEE principal investigator and an extension assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, will give an energy talk at the 19th North Quabbin Garlic and Arts Festival in Orange. Dr. Weil will explain the possibilities of creating a grid with variable sources of power such as wind, solar, and small hydropower.
“In New England, our biggest demand is still heating. We’re going to have to switch to electricity if we want to be renewable,” he said. “The big take-away is we’re going to make our houses much more thermally energy efficient to drop the heating demand to something smaller so the electric grid can handle it.
“Even with climate change, it’s not like the cold goes away,” Dr. Weil, a building scientist, added.
He also said the Massachusetts Legislature is considering a bill that aims to require Massachusetts to get 100 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2050.
