The Connecticut Clean Energy Fund (CCEF), which is administered by Rocky Hill, Conn.-based Connecticut Innovations, has presented fifteen Connecticut towns with grants of $5,000 each to help their communities support clean energy awareness and education.
The CCEF program the grants were provided under is known as the Community Innovations Grants Program. Under the program, which is funded with $200,000 from CCEF, the first 40 qualifying Connecticut cities and towns receive a block grant. In order to qualify, a municipality must first commit to the SmartPower 20% by 2010 clean energy campaign and attend a workshop on the grants program.
‘In addition to helping Connecticut cities and towns generate awareness of and support for clean energy at the local level, these grants are an excellent tool to help communities qualify for earned solar PV systems,’ says Lise Dondy, CCEF's president. ‘Many communities have creatively used the grants to generate enough clean energy sign-ups to qualify them as Connecticut Clean Energy Communities, thereby earning them the CCEF-provided solar PV systems.’
The 15 towns that recently received the grants include Bloomfield, Canton, Cheshire, Chester, Essex, Hartford, Harwinton, Meriden, Plainville, Salisbury, Stamford, West Hartford, Westport, Wethersfield and Woodbridge.