Beginning in 2009 an informal group of public, private and not‐for‐profit organizations joined together
to negotiate the best possible pricing for electricity. Out of that loose partnership grew the Monadnock
Buying Collaborative (MBC), a group of small local governments that share a common goal of not only
leveraging the benefits of a larger organization when negotiating pricing, but also of taking advantage of
the many renewable energy opportunities that are simply not available to small governmental agencies
working on their own.
Though it has sometimes been difficult to find the funding opportunities to allow a small community to
make investments in renewable energy, the members of the MBC have been committed to taking all the
steps they can towards a more complete sustainable energy portfolio. Members have successes at
many levels including several biomass projects, active local energy groups, and they are listed on the
EPA’s Green Power Partnership website as 100% Renewable Partners. Last year Peterborough, an MBC
member, successfully collaborated with Borrego Solar on an application to the NH PUC for a one
megawatt photovoltaic project now under construction and expected to be fully operational in early
2015.
With that experience within its membership, the MBC is now looking to expand on that project and
develop a model that allows communities that are otherwise too small to install their own photovoltaic
systems to take advantage of a collective approach made possible by net metering and power purchase
agreements. We have engaged Standard Power to open discussions with Borrego Solar on the
development of a one megawatt solar array for the MBC member communities to share. Our members
are thrilled by the opportunities that this project presents us, not only for the renewable power it will
provide, but also for the educational environment it creates for the students, and the regionalization
model that can be replicated by other small hometown communities all over New Hampshire.
