When the sun is shining in Loudon, the electricity bill at the town offices should disappear.
Work recently finished on a solar panel array, located on the roof of the town office.
“The more we looked at it, the more a solar array made sense,” said the head of Loudon’s energy committee and former state Rep. George Saunderson.
The committee had been looking into alternative energy and decided to go with the same method that some of them had already been using at their homes.
The energy committee has been working since 2018 to make the town of Loudon more energy efficient, Saunderson said.
One of the committee’s recent initiatives was replacing older light bulbs with more energy-efficient lighting in city buildings.
Saunderson said the town office was chosen as the spot for a solar panel because of its south-facing nature, its overall energy use and the fact that it is relatively new. The solar panels were installed by KW Management, a company out of Nashua.
The plan was presented to the town last May with a total cost of $75,000, much of which was paid for by reserve funds from the energy committee. The panels are expected to pay for themselves in 11 years. Additionally, Saunderson said, the solar energy should eliminate the buildings’ electricity bill.
“It should completely cover it, with maybe a little leftover,” said Saunderson.
Next on the horizon for the energy committee is getting solar panels installed on the fire department.
Saunderson said New Hampshire has some catching up to do in terms of solarizing.
“We are way behind southern New England but also behind Maine and Vermont,” said Saunderson.
The panels will be connected and start generating power next week.