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Brighter days ahead for the town of Hanover

HANOVER — The town of Hanover is installing electric car charging stations this week in cooperation with a state grant program that will fund new street lighting for the town.

At the last town board meeting, the board unanimously approved the wiring and installation of two Aero Vironment EVSE-RS electric vehicle charging stations at an approximate cost of $650. These charging stations will be installed on the north side of the Town Hall building and available for public use.

According to councilperson Louis Pelletter, installing these charging station is one of four of the 10 criteria that must be met in order to receive grant funds from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). Other criteria include sending building inspectors to classes about high-pressure sodium street lighting and “bench marking,” which involves tracking the electricity usage of large buildings (1,000 square feet or more) within the town.

Pelletter explained that the state is encouraging the usage of electric vehicles and that by making charging stations available to the public, the usage of electric vehicles will hopefully increase. This also benefits the town, as installing the charging stations makes Hanover eligible for $25,000 to $50,000 more in NYSERDA grants.

The primary plan for additional grant funds is the replacement of the town’s street lights with all LED lights, which are much more energy efficient. “Most of the street lighting is high-pressure sodium,” explained Pelletter. “In Forestville, there are mostly mercury vapor lights, which give that yellow look.” In addition to giving off a brighter light, LED lighting has a longer lifespan and costs much less to maintain.

According to Pelletter, the LED lighting is projected to save the town a significant amount of money — possibly over $1,000/month — which benefits everyone. The town of Hanover will be among the first 20 percent of towns in the state to make the switch to LED. Pelletter predicted, “Pretty soon, everyone is going to have to convert to LED and then they just won’t make the old lights or replacement parts anymore. We want to get in on the ground floor now when there’s grant money available to do this.”

Westfield has already been converting to LED lights, according to Pelletter, and other townships in western New York have made the change. “NYSEG told me that West Seneca had already converted their lighting and that Orchard Park hadn’t yet. This was a great opportunity to compare the two towns’ lights side-by-side and really see the difference.”

Pelletter, who has been a big supporter of this initiative from the start, likes the fact that LEDs take less wattage but also give the town a bit more control over the brightness of street lights. This change will make the streets safer by allowing the town to see where brighter lighting may be needed, like busy intersections, for example.

Finding greener, more efficient energy sources has already been a priority for the town of Hanover. “We have solar panels on the Town Hall right now, and I was really surprised at the savings on our electric bill. It was definitely significant.” Pelletter hopes that when the building’s roof is replaced in the near future, more solar panels can be added for greater electricity savings. But as always, projects like this are contingent on the town’s budget, which Pelletter says the board will be working on this fall.

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